THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, October 16, 2015

Known as Cassy to her teammates, friends and coaches, sophomore goalkeeper Cassandra Van Der Mey, 19, has been busy laying a brick wall against some of her opponents for the North Idaho College women’s soccer team.

And while the secret, or cat, is out of the bag, don’t think she hasn’t caught some opponents talking a little trash, thinking no Cardinal understands fluent Spanish.

Careful, NIC opponents, because at least one of them does.

SINCE SHE can remember as a young child, Van Der Mey’s mother from Mexico City, Manuela, has taught her both Spanish and English in Victoria, which is roughly a nine-hour drive — plus about a two-hour ferry ride — to the capital of British Columbia and no, for those who don’t already know, it’s not Vancouver.

So while her landscaping father, Bert, is from Vancouver but is Dutch, and Van Der Mey may not sound completely Mexican, she understands the language just fine. G-rated words and otherwise. “Typically, sometimes players can speak Spanish and don’t think anyone can understand them,” Van Der Mey said. “They have a looser mouth.”

Van Der Mey’s parents met in Mexico City while he was traveling with his brother and in a few years, they went back up to Victoria to live.

To show the extent to how much her father wanted to see her play when they got a little closer to southwest Canada, Bert took a two-hour ferry to watch his daughter and her Cardinal teammates play at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Wash., directly south of Victoria.

“I was wondering why he was texting me, wondering which field we were on,” Van Der Mey said. “It was funny, because he was accidentally at the wrong field at the college. It was sweet, he brought me a care package, it was very nice of him.”

SO FAR, Van Der Mey has helped her team to a 4-4-2 record and 2-2-1 in the Northwest Athletic Conference. Splitting time earlier this season with former Lake City High goalie Tiegan Horton, she has allowed six goals in those 10 games.

Last season, the Cardinals finished 9-3-9 (8-2-8 NWAC) and lost to Shoreline Community College in the first round of the NWAC playoffs. She split some time with former Coeur d’Alene High goalkeeper Madi Williams and together they tied the team record for fewest goals allowed in a single season with 12, with Van Der Mey allowing six goals.

“This year we’ve given up 12 goals,” NIC coach Dan Hogan said. “We’ve had eight shutouts, but because she (Van Der Mey) shares time, she doesn’t always get credit for them. One of my philosophies is to develop players. I think she wants to continue playing at a four-year school. She could potentially play at a Big Sky level-type of school.”

What’s a tad tricky is Van Der Mey will have to decide whether to go college in Canada or the United States, where the exchange rate is roughly 77 U.S. cents to the Canadian dollar. That can affect the amount of potential scholarship money or tuition rates in either country and the amount of money she could potentially get awarded, academically or athletically. Van Der Mey said she has not yet received any offers.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out,” Van Der Mey said. “It depends on if I want to keep playing. I was on the athletic academic honor roll last semester.”

And of course, that salty language of some opponents speaking Spanish as a means to try to get away with saying some R-rated material.

“I ask her after games, ‘Do you know what they’re saying?’ Hogan said. “She’d say, ‘They’re saying things you don’t want to have repeated.’ One day we (the team) were watching the NIC guys play. She said one guy said how bad our guys were and used some adjectives.”

HOW VAN Der Mey got recruited out of Lambrick Park Secondary in Victoria is a familiar story. Hogan was actually at a club soccer tournament looking at a player a year younger, Emily Aspden, who also wound up playing for the Cardinals.

“I was there recruiting Emily,” Hogan said. “Then their softball coach (Rocky Vitale) said, ‘I have this goalkeeper who you saw who’s also pretty good.’ She was ranked as a top-five goalkeeper in British Columbia. Originally, she was going to play soccer for me in the fall and softball in the spring. But after last fall, she decided to stick with soccer.”

After that decision, Van Der Mey has been fine where she’s chosen to play and attend college.

“I like being away from home,” Van Der Mey said. “I like being in a different country, it’s been better than I thought it’d be. Last year, I thought we did well, our defense and everyone was on the same page. We worked together very well. I’ve opened up, I found friends and I live with three of them who are on the team (Jasmine Smith, Haley White and Jessica Cassens). I’ve met new people and I love coming to school here, coming to North Idaho. The main reason I came to school was to find out what I want to do.”

ONE MORE neat thing. On July 5 in Vancouver, Van Der Mey went with a family friend to watch none other than the final of the Women’s World Cup, which was won by the United States over Japan, 5-2. Of course, she was paying closer attention to each goalkeeper, especially during one of the most impressive goals in Team USA history, men’s or women’s side. Carli Lloyd booted a ball from the midfield point, which appeared to catch Japan goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori off guard. She tapped it off the post, but the ball still went into the net.

Of course, Van Der Mey had a great view of that goal.

“I had the perfect view,” Van Der Mey said. “I was behind the corner flag, in the middle of the crowd. The field’s so big. Everyone had spirit. It gave me shivers when we won the game. It really motivated me, it was hard not to get inspired by it. I have a good role model in Hope Solo, she’s great at what she does.”

And in her own right, Van Der Mey is pretty great at what she does, too. Just try to not hide that language in plain sight.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com