Meet the Girls From Across the Pond

EAST PEORIA — How do two women soccer players from England end up playing soccer for Illinois Central College?

Two freshmen, Megan Wilson from Newcastle and Shauna Giltinan from London, were introduced to ICC by the FirstPointUSA program.

FirstPointUSA is an international organization that gives students around the world an opportunity to further their playing and educational experiences at schools in the United States.

“I knew that if I stayed at home, I wouldn’t have been able to play at a high level and go to a university,” said Wilson.

According to Giltinan, she had picked a university in England but made a last second decision to come here.

“I wanted to go through it for the first year and see what it was like,” said Giltinan.

Wilson grew up in Newcastle, which is in the northeast of the country.

“I live about 20 minutes from the city, 20 minutes from the beach and 20 minutes from the countryside,” said Wilson about where she comes from.

Wilson grew up playing soccer and her favorite player is David Beckham. Beckham, an England native, played for Manchester United in Manchester, England. Beckham played for 20 years in England and in the United States. Beckham played for the LA Galaxy from 2007 through 2012.

Giltinan grew up in Surrey, which is 40 minutes away from London.

“I started soccer from a young age,” said Giltinan.

Giltinan has two favorite players, Casey Stoney and Gianfranco Zola. Stoney is currently the captain of the womens English National team and the Chelsea Ladies Football Club. Meanwhile, Zola made 229 appearances for Chelsea Football Club.

Both players say that coming to ICC was made easier by the fact that the school and their athletic teams have many international players.

“I think it made it easier for us, we hang out with them a lot,” said Wilson. “They are internationals so they know what it is like to miss their family and be away from home.”

Giltinan says that ICC is big compared to the universities at home.

“People think this college is small. This is really big compared to the university I was at last year,” said Giltinan.

Both players agree that head coach Emily Points has played a big role in their transition to the United States and to ICC.

“We go to see her a lot, she helps us out and asks if we need anything,” said Wilson.

Both of the girls are studying Physical Education here at ICC in their freshman year. They both plan on moving on to play at a four year school when they graduate from ICC.

“We don’t know where we want to go but know we want to play Division I or II,” said Giltinan.

Wilson said that the game in America is completely different than the style of play in England and they train differently for the game than here.

“Here there is a lot of running and fitness,” said Wilson. “Over there it is more run with the ball and skill based activities.”

Both players agree that they have a message to students that would possibly think about coming overseas to go to college and possibly play sports.

“It is a one of kind opportunity,” said Giltinan. “You have to give it enough time to find out if you want to stay here or not.”