| Faculty
Soccer Fan to Coach for a Day
 Growing
up in Brazil, Marguerite Itamar Harrison, assistant professor
of Portuguese and Brazilian studies, became an avid fan of
soccer -- or futebol, as it’s called in Brazil. And
though she has always enjoyed the world’s most popular
game as a spectator, she’s never played it and has never
dreamed of coaching.
Until now.
Come this Saturday, Oct. 7, when
Smith’s soccer team takes on Worcester Polytechnic Institute
(WPI), Harrison will take a seat on the Smith team bench as
“Coach for the Day.”
She won’t really be coaching,
she emphasizes (“a role that is incredibly daunting
to me”), but “I am definitely looking forward
to watching from the bench, a perspective I don’t usually
have.”
Before the game kicks off, Harrison
will talk to the Smith soccer team about Brazilian soccer,
and about the college’s Portuguese language and culture
courses. She also plans, as a Smith soccer fan and faculty
member, to express her pride in them as student-athletes,
who strive to perform at a high level on the field and in
the classroom.
 Harrison
came to her role as Coach for the Day as a result of her interactions
last year with Phil Neilson, Smith’s soccer coach, who
audited two of her Brazilian studies courses, which are taught
in Portuguese. “His presence truly added to the classroom
dynamics in such a positive way,” she recalls. “In
exchange, I told him that I wanted to do something for the
Smith soccer team.”
Harrison says the Brazilian style
of soccer favors creativity and improvisation, in addition
to the basic skill and discipline necessary for a competitive
game.
“Brazil is a country that
lives and breathes soccer, its national passion,” she
explains, pointing out that her country has taken the World
Cup, soccer’s most prestigious championship, five times.
“There is a sense of the sport as a source of fun for
the players, and that is something I value a lot, and would
want the players at Smith to take in, that sense of joy that
comes from playing for the sake of playing.”
While growing up as a fan of
Brazilian futebol, Harrison always watched from the stands,
she remembers, because girls and women did not typically play
the game. “In my day soccer was a very male sport. Since
I’ve been in the U.S., I’ve watched the sport
extend a space to women, which I am so happy to see. Futebol
visibility and opportunities for women soccer players are
still very slim in Brazil in comparison to here in the U.S.”
Soccer became an intercollegiate
varsity sport at Smith in 1976 and has grown into one of the
finest college programs in New England, producing 17 tournament
championships and 16 post-season appearances. Smith soccer
has recorded five straight winning seasons.
The October 7 game against WPI
will take place at 2:30 p.m. on the Smith athletic field.
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