NAME: Michelle Ring
UNIVERSITY: British Columbia
CATEGORY: Student-athlete
SPORT: Women's soccer
HIGHLIGHTS:
Two straight CW titles
First-ever CIAU women’s soccer championship title
CW leading scorer in back-to-back seasons
Four-time CW All-Star
45 caps as member of national team
BIOGRAPHY:
Michelle Ring, the number one B.C. recruit in women’s high school basketball, did not miss a step when she signed on to play at the university level for the UBC Thunderbirds. She won the team’s most valuable rookie award before making a sudden change. Ring decided to trade the court for the soccer pitch, switching squads in the summer of 1986.
And the rest was history. Ring dominated the field like she did the hard court. She made the night-and-day transition appear seamless, going on to make the Canadian national team at the age of 18.
Despite having to give up scholarship money, Ring pushed on with soccer, helping her team to a Canada West banner in her first season. The rookie was also named to the conference’s all-star team.
She was given the “C” her second season, a title she lived up to. Ring scored the game-winning goal that secured the T-Birds’ victory in the Vancouver Premiere League, while they also repeated as CW champions.
Ring’s excellence shone through in the biggest moments of the CIAU championship that same year. She notched the lone goal to write her team’s name down in history as the first-ever victors of the women’s CIAU soccer championship.
Ring earned CIAU All-Canadian honours that season and went on to secure the same title in the following two seasons as she also led the conference in scoring.
According to former UBC soccer coach Bob Elton, Ring as a soccer player was "hard working with leadership qualities. She is the one player you identify with the sport.” In the words of former UBC Sport Information Director Don Wells, "she is one of the best soccer players in our history and one of the nicest people I've ever met."
Ring’s time at UBC would not soon be forgotten. Upon her graduation in 1980, she was named the winner of the Marilyn Pomfret Award (UBC’s top female athlete) and the Kay Brearley Award (given for exceptional service to the women’s athletic program).
The four-time Canada West all-star earned 45 caps with Canada’s national teams from 1986-1995. A trailblazer in Canadian women’s soccer, Ring was just the fourth female to be inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame.