WVU’s soccer sensation (and first-generation college student) defends the net on field and wants to help defend society off the pitch.

 

Summer 2015 will be remembered for many reasons. Jurassic World’s record box office haul. Major Lazer and DJ Snake teaming up for the Billboard-busting “Lean On.” And in case you missed it, Taylor Swift was kind of big, too.

 

On the sports page, though, the summer might eventually be remembered as a watershed moment for women’s sports. Team USA’s victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup attracted stateside viewers at unprecedented levels. The U.S. women’s cup clinching victory over Japan became the most watched soccer match of any gender in U.S. history, shattering previous records.

 

One of the brightest lights to shine at the World Cup, played on Canadian soil, was a 19-year old Toronto native who led the host country to the tournament’s quarterfinals and was recognized for her outstanding play with the “Young Player Award” – the first from her country ever to receive the prestigious honor.

 

That phenom’s name is Kadeisha Buchanan, star center back for the West Virginia Mountaineers.

 

“I think back to this summer, and it was… it was crazy,” said Buchanan, who was born in Toronto but grew up in Brampton, Ontario. “My dream was to play in a World Cup. It just came really fast.”

 

While Buchanan has become accustomed to recording firsts on the soccer pitch, it’s in the classroom that she’s set to make family history. The junior criminology major – and the 11th of 12 siblings – is on track to become the first member of her family to graduate college.

 

“It’s like I don’t just go to school for me, it’s for my family as well,” said Buchanan, whose parents were both born in Jamaica, a culture the family still strongly embraces. “I know it means a lot to my family (that I’ll graduate). I’ve had a lot of people tell me that I should leave school and go play pro. But school really means a lot to me. I take pride in going to school and going to class. I know my family does, too.”

 

Going to college – let alone going to college in a new country – was something Buchanan had not given much thought to until she reached high school. That’s when a chain reaction started that would see her land on the West Virginia campus.

 

“I was around U-15 age,” she said. “I had a club coach who really knew a lot about U.S. schools. He had previous players from his team go off to college in the States. That’s something I knew nothing about. But he did and he showed me the possibilities. I started looking around and I came in contact with (West Virginia Women’s Soccer Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown). It felt like home.”

 

Still, the leap from the soccer fields of Brampton to the bustle of the Morgantown campus took a period of adjustment. For Buchanan, there was a calm that came with the family atmosphere cultivated by the soccer program.

 

“Coach definitely stressed that this is a family – and that’s very, very big for me,” she said. “I call her my second mom because that’s what she is. And you just get so much support here with academics. I get help with my scheduling and the tutors are very helpful. I have people who I can talk with and ask questions. In some ways it has been easier to succeed here than high school because I feel I have so much support.

 

“And I think about graduating a lot. It will be a proud moment. Like joining the World Cup team. When I received the Outstanding Young Player award, I went to see my mom and it was just pure emotion. I was very emotional because I could see in her face how proud she was. I feel like that’s going to happen again when I graduate.”

 

While Buchanan is eyeing a long career playing both internationally for Canada and for a club in the professional ranks, she’s preparing for her post soccer career. That’s where the criminology degree comes in, one she hopes to parlay into a potential career as a detective.

 

“I find it very interesting,” she said. “I’m very interested in being a detective. I’d like to pursue that. My mom and I used to always watch crime shows. Criminal Minds. The First 48. Law and Order. The thought process of a detective fascinates me – how they investigate a crime scene. I just want to help society”

 

Defending the public may be in Buchanan’s future, but her present is defending the net as perhaps the nation’s premier center back.