INCOMING BRAZILIAN BOOSTS GEE-GEES W-VOLLEYBALL
"When I was a child I always had a thing about Canada," said Schwanke, who will finally get to play right and leftside for uOttawa this weekend after six months of wondering if getting on the floor or even staying in Canada would be possible.
Schwanke was born and raised in Blumenau, a German city of 300,000 in the south of Brazil. She speaks fluent Portuguese, German and English.
Married in Ottawa December 5, 2008 to fellow Brazilian John Fernando, who works at an Ottawa computer company, Schwanke said the Gee-Gees are like a tropical vacation after nine years with the club program Bluvolei in Brazil.
"I can do mistakes here," smiled Schwanke, a first-year Canadian Interuniversity Sport student-athlete who attended her first uOttawa Social Science classes Tuesday. "I play a little bit more happy here."
"I have had some different recruiting stories over 20 years," said Gee-Gees head coach Lionel Woods, uOttawa's longest serving coach.
"Her hometown was flooded out over Christmas and she wasn't sure she would get back in the country because her visa was messed up.
"A lot of hot and cold days on emotion for her."
Woods said the paperwork is now settled and Schwanke will play in every game this weekend as the OUA East second-place Gee-Gees (8-3) host Ryerson (2-9) Saturday (2:30 p.m.) and third-place Toronto (6-4) Sunday (2;30 p.m.) at Montpetit Hall.
The player the uOttawa program is getting seems well worth the wait.
"She invents new things every time she touches the ball," Woods said. "What she does ... changes every game she plays in."
Schwanke, with a new life and circuitous administrative roller coaster in the rear-view mirror, can now look ahead.
'I am nervous ... but I think it's going to be ok," she said.
"I have been waiting six months for this. I have my right visa and now I want to have fun."
Source: Gee-Gees Athletics