Tiago De Oliveira '22 Recruiting Profile

I am Tiago De Oliveira. I grew up in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. I attend school at St. Joan of Arc Catholic High School and play soccer for Union FC. One thing that sets me apart from every other player that you see is I will do anything in order to win and I put the team's needs before my own. I will out pace any other player put up against me and I am not afraid to put my body on the line. 

 I was a key player on the school soccer, cross country, basketball and nordic ski teams last year.  As an individual, I qualified for the provincial championships last year in nordic skiing and at a team level for soccer.  Since grade nine I have qualified for  provincial championships yearly in cross country, track, nordic skiing and soccer. I was selected to participate in a training camp with FC Porto in 2018 and last year competed with my team internationally at the Iber Cup in Lisbon.

My goal is to study and play soccer at an American university and pursue a career in mechanical engineering. I am a dedicated student athlete with a GPA of 4.0. I completed my first set of SATs in 2019 and scored a 1210. In addition to this, I was selected to be a part of a program to study health care, child labour, colonialism, Aboriginal culture, and education as they relate to the Third World.The program was supposed to culminate in a two week volunteer experience in rural Kenya, however due to the current state of the world, that was cancelled. 

I work hard both on and off the pitch and learn from everything that life throws at me. The COVID-19 pandemic threw a huge wrench in my way of life. All sports were cancelled and we were forced to train online through zoom. For cross country training, I I had no choice but to do my workouts on my own in miserable Canadian weather. Despite this, I grew as an athlete in terms of the discipline and commitment it took me to complete workouts and runs all alone. The pandemic allowed me time to join the Barrie Music School and take guitar lessons through FaceTime. Learning guitar was always a goal of mine as I am very passionate about music. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to discover another hobby that I enjoy doing. I began learning how to code using Arduino, and attempted to make a robot. Lastly, I missed being involved in my school’s Best Buddies club, however I made a special effort to keep in touch with one friend I have with autism. She would colour pictures for me and I would drop off treats at her house and take her to the basketball court to shoot hoops. 

I’m coming out of this pandemic in better physical shape and in a better head space than I have ever been in because I was determined to make the best of my situation. I’m more focused and driven and ready to take it to the next level to achieve my goals.