Women's soccer's Indi Cowie juggles her new responsibilities

The sun shines in a cloudless sky on a perfect November day. The air at Fetzer Field pulses with excitement as the North Carolina women’s soccer team warms up for its opening NCAA tournament game against Liberty.

But possibly the best player in the stadium is not on the field.

Indi Cowie steps through the gate from the field into the stands to watch the game. The sophomore stands out from the other women with her above-average height and pink tennis shoes. Give her a ball, and her standout athletic ability will quickly become apparent as well, but not in the usual sense.

Cowie ranks as one of the top soccer freestylers in the world — a sport that revolves around performing tricks with a soccer ball and any part of the body.

She holds the world record for the most heel taps in a minute with 102, and Barcelona star Lionel Messi picked her as the winner of the FIFA Street World Street Champion contest. She performed at halftime of a Chelsea vs. Manchester United game in London in front of 76,000 fans and appeared in an advertisement for the Champions League shown in 58 countries.

“There aren’t too many people in the world who can do what she’s doing,” said coach Anson Dorrance.

Dream come true

Soccer runs through the bloodlines of the Cowie family. Cowie’s grandfather played for a professional team in Scotland and she says she grew up walking with a soccer ball. She played soccer with organized teams from a young age, and although she didn’t play for her high school, she competed on boys’ club teams.

“My dad played professional soccer, so we talked about soccer, played soccer all the time, it meant everything to us,” said Logan Cowie, her father.

At a young age, Indi Cowie saw another world-champion freestyler, John Farnworth, perform in England. Inspired, she returned home to North Carolina and immediately began practicing in her garage for hours every day.

“For me it was a completely different sport,” Cowie said. “I loved doing both and wanted to take both as far as I could.”

Growing up nearby in Cary, Cowie says she spent her childhood looking up to former UNC players like Mia Hamm, whom she now knows personally. So when UNC began recruiting her to play soccer, Cowie couldn’t imagine saying anything but yes.

“It’s been my dream to come here, I grew up going to games as a kid,” Cowie said. “It was a no-brainer for me.”

A Messi start

As her freestyling suggests, Cowie possesses a natural flair with the ball similar to Messi, one of her favorite players.

“In terms of mastering the ball and mastering the game, she was truly unique in that area,” Dorrance said.

Cowie lacks exceptional speed and quickness, which Dorrance said could have held her back from the highest level of the sport. But, like Messi, Cowie’s love for the ball set her apart. Dorrance believes a bond with the ball plays a key role in creating a successful soccer culture and a winning program, and Cowie’s technical mastery drew him to her as a player.

However, Cowie barely received the chance to show what she could do. In an exhibition game during the spring of her freshman year, Cowie tore her ACL.

She redshirted her freshman year and rehabbed through the fall, but her soccer prospects faced a somber reality. If she continued playing college soccer, she had a 40-percent chance of retearing her ACL. She had to decide if she could risk it.

So this spring, Cowie walked into Dorrance’s office and told him she wanted to retire from college soccer.

“After about six seconds, she could sense my genuine support for her,” Dorrance said.

“I knew what her ultimate dreams and goals were, and I think as a soccer coach, I have to support her in that.”

The other side of the ball

Cowie remained on the team as an undergraduate assistant coach, as Dorrance hoped her love for the ball would still prove contagious. Now, instead of taking the field with her teammates against Liberty, she’s watching from the stands.

Cowie believes she made the right choice — she wouldn’t have told the legendary Dorrance she had to retire otherwise. She had once said she couldn’t choose between her collegiate career and freestyle, but the injury changed that.

“I couldn’t put that at risk,” Cowie said.

Still, sitting at Fetzer Field watching her teammates play, the longing in Cowie’s eyes is evident. She talks about wanting to come to UNC, play on Fetzer Field and for the national team in the World Cup, but then trails off.

Several factors played into Cowie’s decision. While she loved both soccer and freestyle, the increased chance of injury from playing soccer could take away both her passions. NCAA regulations also prevented Cowie from taking full advantage of the opportunities her freestyle talents provided her.

While she had received permission to both play soccer and pursue a professional freestyle career, the NCAA limited what opportunities she could pursue to brand herself and forbade her to use her name or image to promote herself.

“Her freestyling career needed to take off,” Dorrance said. “Some of the stuff she does at the international level is truly remarkable, and she should get paid for it.”

Cowie currently runs freestyle clinics and continues to build her brand. She markets herself using the word “individual,” a play on her name.

“It means to just follow your heart and dreams and be yourself,” Cowie said. “Don’t let anyone influence you in a negative way. Do what you believe is right, follow your dreams and don’t let anything get in the way of who you are.”

As one of first women to make her mark in the sport, Cowie hopes she can serve as an example to other girls looking to begin freestyling and push the sport’s popularity.

“She’s got this pioneer spirit and this intrepid attitude towards constructing this brave new world for her,” Dorrance said. “I think that she can do something incredible with her life in a niche that is raw and new.”

sports@dailytarheel.com