From Stopping Shots to Saving Lives

She wanted to be a singing veterinarian. Not being able to sing put a damper on those plans.

For years, Laura Dougall felt at home protecting the soccer net. Stopping blazing shots from point-blank came naturally. The 23-year-old Toronto native created a name for herself doing just that.

Committing to the University of Buffalo in tenth grade, an up and coming Division I soccer program in upstate New York, there was something special about Dougall from the moment she stepped onto the field at the University of Buffalo Stadium in a Bulls uniform.

History was made her first year as a Bull. Freshman Dougall led her team to their first Mid-American Conference championship and their first NCAA College Cup tournament appearance, earning her MAC Freshman of the Year recognition. But the accolades didn’t stop there. Dougall currently holds records in single-season shutouts (13), single-season wins (16), single-season minutes played (1985), career shutouts (33), career goals against average (.83), and career wins (39). She also boasts the career minutes played in the Mid-American Conference (7402). That still wasn’t all.

The summer of 2017 provided Dougall with an opportunity not many collegiate soccer players receive. She earned a call-up for the Trinidad & Tobago national women’s soccer team. The Canadian could play for the Caribbean island because of her father’s dual residency status, and she was uncapped for any other national team. An international call-up topped off an incredible soccer career.

However, her decorated four-year career wasn’t all record-setting. Like any athlete, Dougall faced injuries along the way – concussions, elbow surgery, and a torn meniscus. But it wasn’t the physical injuries that overshadowed a spectacular four years in the frame and shaped her path for the future.

There was nothing on paper indicating the darkness. On paper, it all seemed perfect.

After graduating with Honors and degrees in psychology and cognitive science, Dougall took time to travel across the world before working as a goalkeeper coach for a soccer club in north Toronto. Her athletes struggle with anxieties and other mental health related issues and would confide in her, but Dougall wants to do more. She wasn’t in a place to offer them professional help.

“I thought, ‘I’m done just listening. I wanted to do something about it’,” she remembers. Dougall wants to help athletes that were struggling and provide them with a support system she didn’t have within the athletic department in college.

“I put tons of pressure on myself,” Dougall reflects about her time as a goalkeeper at Buffalo. The injuries and the pressures amounted to a weight she struggled to carry during her career. It became hard for her to eat. And then she was sleeping all the time.  Finally, it got to a point where she hadn’t left her house for two days. It was then a friend knew something about their bubbly goalkeeper was off.

Dougall met with a sports psychologist, or so she thought after learning the woman she spoke with wasn’t actually a professional, rather a friend of her coach who did not act upon the promise of confidentiality. It gave her a negative perception of getting help. She then credits her “amazing” psychologist with the Counseling Services at the University of Buffalo for “getting her through university.”

“As humans, we are constantly questioning our purpose and trying to go down a path where we are fulfilling it,” Dougall said. “For me, that’s where I was in university, constantly wondering if I was doing the right thing that would lead me to where I should be and to happiness.”

“I want them to know someone was listening and that someone cares about them,” Dougall says of her athletes. As a coach, athletes look up to you, she added. She likes to be there for them. Dougall knows the warning signs and what to look for.

Currently, Dougall is working towards her Master of Counseling Psychology at Frostburg State University where she also works as the graduate assistant coach of the women’s soccer team, which competes in the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference and finished with a 6-9-0 record in conference play.

It was the opportunity to continue her education and apply exactly what she was learning in the classroom that drew her to FSU. Dougall understands the pressures of sports both on and off the field.

“All the hard days, weirdly enough, showed me that my passion lied in mental health and supporting people,” Dougall adds as she grins.

She hopes to become a certified professional counselor in multiple states throughout the United States and in Canada while continuing to coach part-time wherever she ends up. Dougall could also see herself potentially working as a counselor within a sports club educating coaches on the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders while stressing to not assume “the best player is in perfect mental health.”

“Maybe, I’ll even go earn my Doctorate,” she says smiling. “It would be in human development.”

“I can now look back on my experience, and truly believe that it led me to my purpose,” Dougall mentioned. “That purpose being in Frostburg, pursuing a degree in an area I’m passionate about. Like my mom always reminds me, this too shall pass. In the moment, that light at the end of the tunnel was nonexistent, but now it’s shining brighter than ever.”

She was a game-changer in the frame for the Bulls, and now Dougall wants to change the game for current and future athletes.

Luckily, the plan to be a singing veterinarian didn’t pan out.