A pair of Coquitlam soccer players are staying close to home for their post-secondary careers.
Kiara Buono and Valerie Silva will be heading up Burnaby Mountain next fall to play for the Simon Fraser University Clan women’s team. They’re among nine new recruits joining the program.
Buono, a midfielder, led the Centennial Centaurs to the BC high school AAA senior championship last spring. She also plays club soccer with Mountain United of the Premier League.
Clan coach Annie Hamel called Buono a “crafty player” with great instincts.
Buono will be joining her former teammate, Danae Robillard, who joined the Clan last fall. She plans to pursue a degree in criminology.
Silva is also a midfielder who made the senior team at Dr. Charles Best secondary when she was in Grade 9. She will be the Blue Devils’ captain this spring and she also plays for Coquitlam Metro-Ford in the Premier League.
Silva will be the third member of her family to play soccer at SFU. Her mom was on the school’s first women’s varsity team in 1988, and her dad also played on the men’s team in the late 1980s.
“SFU has always felt like home to me,” Silva said.
Hamel said Silva’s best attribute is her vision.
“She can see the field and find the right pass,” the Clan coach said. “She will make the players around her better.”
Silva plans to major in education.
