Through the Goalposts: Simon Grande’s Journey, a Typical Tale of an Athletes Challenges, Sacrifices, and Perserverance

By: Agatha Godlewski

Behind every athlete’s glory lies a journey often untold—one of sacrifice, relentless setbacks, and resilience. For Grande, the journey is not just about victory; it’s about surviving the struggle.  

Grande enters the room with a practiced ease that masks his discomfort. His steps are steady, his posture confident, but the telltale signs of strain peek through— hoarse voice, frequent sniffling, and a deep cough interrupting him every few minutes. He clutches a large Tim Hortons iced coffee, his lifeline on this particular day. The walls of the yellow, grungy room do little to brighten the atmosphere, but Grande doesn’t seem to mind. He sinks into a chair and shrugs as if to say, I’m here, let’s get this over with. 

“When people ask me to talk about myself, usually I’m like, ‘Get out of my face. I’m not talking about this,’” Grande says with a shrug. “But yeah, this is different.” He pauses, eyes fixed on his iced coffee. “To me, I’m just a normal person. Everyone’s got their own thing. My story’s not more interesting, or sadder, or cooler than anyone else’s. It’s just mine.”  

Grande’s words set the tone for a recurring theme in his story: the tendency of athletes to downplay their experiences. They are so consumed by their sport, so focused on the next milestone, that they fail to recognize the worth of their journey. 

 

Growing up in Hamilton, Ontario, soccer was a constant in his life. In his Italian family, soccer was as vital as the air they breathe. By the time he was 10, he was already a goalkeeper in Ontario’s top youth system. But it wasn’t easy from the start. He recalls his first season—his team conceding over 120 goals across just 18 games. 

 “For any 10-year-old, that’s a shocking experience,” he says, eyes distant as he remembers. “I’m thinking I’d never be good enough for this.”  

 Grande playing soccer as a young child.  

Grande dropped to a lower-level league for a while, regaining his confidence. By 14, he knew he could compete seriously. Soon, he was excelling not just in soccer but in basketball and rugby as well. It all came down to a choice: which sport would he commit to?  

Soccer won. At 15, Grande took a massive leap, joining a professional soccer academy in Toronto. He juggled studies, training, and a demanding commute to Toronto—a gruelling schedule most adults would find daunting. 

The summer of 2015 saw Grande playing for the Toronto Lynx, the junior program of a semi-professional team.  

“I was playing in their academy,” Grande takes a sip of his coffee. “They had three teams at the youth level, and during that process, I got recruited to play in Orlando, Florida. So, I moved there with another kid on that Toronto team at 16.”  

By the start of his Grade 11 year in 2016, Grande found himself living in Orlando, training with a professional academy. His life revolved around soccer, with little room for anything else.  

Moving into the summer after that year, Grande continued to push his limits.  

“That academy had a semi-pro team for the summer, and they asked me to play. I was just 16, probably the youngest Canadian to play in Florida’s PDL, now called USL2.” 

His experience in the semi-pro league earned him a bigger scholarship and a move to Orlando City, an academy affiliated with Major League Soccer. By Grade 12, Grande’s schedule was more intense than ever.  

“I would train from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, go to school from 10:00 [AM] to 3:00 [PM], get a couple of hours off, and then from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM, I would train again. On weekends, we would travel to different states—California, wherever.” 

Grande’s hard work seemed to be paying off when he signed with a Division I School, Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.  

It was a late signing, but the coach believed in him, and it felt like a step in the right direction. Just as quickly as the dream was taking shape, it crumbled. 

The coach called him in June to say he was bringing in a 25-year-old goalkeeper from the University of Charleston. Grande’s role would be relegated to the bench, and he would likely have to wait until his junior year for a chance to play. 

Grande felt blindsided, frustrated by how hard he had worked and the sudden change in plans. 

“That made me pretty angry and upset at that time because of the work I had put in and because I declined offers from different schools.” 

 Grande’s voice softens, “It was really upsetting at the time, my mom was with me for those couple of weeks, so we were both upset about that situation.” 

 

His mother, Tina Grande, expresses how she felt during that time. 

“Honestly, I felt guilty as a mum that he was bouncing around a lot.” 

Grande with his mother, Tina Grande, on Seniors Day at the University of Windsor. 

Determined to keep fighting, Grande requested a transfer. He landed at the University of Rio Grande, a NAIA school in Ohio, planning to spend two years there before potentially returning to Marshall. But it wasn’t what he had imagined. The campus was small, the environment quiet—far from the bustling, setting he was used to.  

Grande thought there was nothing nice about this area, saying, “It’s the crummiest place on Earth.” 

Surrounded by older players, Grande felt out of place. During preseason, Grande’s work ethic paid off—he earned the starting role and managed a shutout against Marshall in a preseason game. But his triumph was short-lived. 

Grande on the Evan Davis soccer field at the University of Rio Grande with his teammates. 

A fractured elbow in a match ended his season prematurely. He tried to hide the injury, unwilling to lose his starting role. 

 “The coaches called me, and I didn’t tell them that I had a broken elbow because the other goalkeeper was also very good. He had more experience. I was concerned if they knew, I would lose my spot, and then everything would go down the drain.” 

Grande chose not to tell the coaches about his injury, but it ultimately affected his performance. He lost the starting position because he couldn’t train effectively or dive properly. This marked the beginning of a series of frustrating injuries for him. 

Spending so much time alone was depressing for Grande. He watched his friends back home and saw the success of others he had played with, making him feel isolated, leading him to become withdrawn. 

Grande’s mental health suffered. The constant injuries, pressure to perform, and frequent changes took a toll. He struggled to find motivation. Luckily, during these difficult times, his mother was always by his side.  

“I tried to always be an ear for him,” his mother expressed. “I went down whenever necessary. He knew that he had an open line of communication day and night with me, and it only took a phone call or a judgment call, and I was there.” 

By November, Grande knew it was time to leave Ohio. He transferred to Radford University in Virginia—a Division I school that had shown interest in him during high school. Arriving at Radford in January, Grande was hopeful. Though he settled in quickly, adjusting was challenging.  

He shared a room with a teammate who turned out to be a local drug dealer. The police often showed up, his roommate making a quick escape through the back window—Grande chuckled while reminiscing.  

Despite the off-field chaos, Grande focused on training, determined to prove himself. The head coach, familiar from the Toronto academy, provided some comfort, but disagreements over tactics and ongoing challenges made Grande’s time at Radford an uphill battle. 

“Coming into that summer, I decided to live about an hour from the school with a Haitian kid who was coming to the school in the fall, where his dad was the coach of a U23 team in Virginia. So really, that whole 2019, I lived solely in Virginia.” 

“Looking back, obviously at 18 or 19, you make weird decisions,” Grande reflects. “It was a life experience, a maturity thing.” 

Entering his second year at Radford, Grande faced yet another setback. He went into the preseason with a pulled hamstring.  

Despite the other goalkeepers, Grande knew he had a good chance. He needed it badly, having left a school with a full scholarship to pay out of pocket at Radford, which his mom was helping cover. He admitted, “I had all that stress in my head. I needed to win this spot.” 

“I was out of shape. I didn’t get in shape until the first week of the season, didn’t play at all that entire season—not a single minute. I only dressed for about half the games.”  

With life on the field not going as he hoped, he knew something needed to change and left the United States.  

 After moving back home, Grande’s mom encouraged him to go back to school. 

 “My mom’s the one to kick my ***.  She said you better go back to school. So, I had applied to Laurier, UofT, and Waterloo,” Grande recalls. 

“I chose Waterloo because I had friends there, and my cousin, who was one of my best friends, was there too,” Grande says.  

Grande playing with his friends and teammates at the University of Waterloo. Credit: Creo Visions. 

 

In Waterloo, Grande began to find himself again, though his first year was challenging. Living at home, facing COVID-19, and the absence of a soccer season took its toll. Still, Grande pushed forward, training relentlessly and building a ‘bootleg gym’ in his garage. Despite it all, he admits to liking the forced break.

“COVID gave me the opportunity to breathe,” he says, taking another long sip from his coffee. 

“Despite everything, I kept training and trying to stay fit.” 

Life at Waterloo wasn’t without its challenges, but it came with moments of growth. Grande balanced studies, training, and a part-time job while maintaining a social life. As restrictions eased, he finally experienced student life and began to enjoy it, regaining a sense of normalcy. 

“My life began when I first moved to Waterloo in May of 2021,” Grande says. It was the start of a new, more enjoyable chapter in his journey.  

After his time at Waterloo, Grande moved to Windsor for his master’s, where he played for his last two varsity years.  

 Grande’s coach at the University of Windsor, Demetri Vacratsis, spoke highly of his influence on and off the field.  

“Grande has a really special place in my heart.” 

 

Demetri Vacratsis, Lancer Soccer Head Coach 

 “He came to Windsor basically at the same time I was entering the men’s team as an interim and then head coach. We relied a lot on each other.”  

Vacratsis described Grande not just as captain and goalkeeper but also as a mentor for the younger players. Grande’s experience was vast—from the NCAA to League One—and he used that experience to help shape the culture at Windsor. 

 “He’s a workhorse—whether it’s the grunt work or the glamour work, Grande will do it. His spirit and mindset are exactly what any entity would be lucky to have.” 

“Grande walked a lot of lives on Earth,” said Kishon Cornwall, Grande’s Lancer teammate and close friend. “He’s been through things that most people can’t even imagine, and he’s still standing.” 

 

Kishon Cornwall 

Cornwall describes Grande as “a coach on the field” and someone who was “all business” during the game, but off the field, he was someone you could always count on for a laugh. There were giggles and laughter as he reminisced on moments they shared. 

“You know, Grande was a finalist for Goalkeeper of the Year in League One, right?”  

 Puzzled by this information, Cornwall, knowing I was unaware, leans forward with his hands out in disbelief.  

 It was a shock to me because Grande hadn’t mentioned it once during our two-hour meeting. To Grande, it was just another title, nothing worth dwelling on. This was just another reminder that Grande downplays his achievements. 

Cornwall’s admiration for Grande is evident, not just in his words but in the way he talks about their shared experiences. The late-night conversations, the early-morning training sessions, the laughter over coffee—all of it paints a picture of a friendship built on mutual respect and shared struggle.  

Grande hesitates to call his story remarkable; to him, it’s just life—the life of an athlete. The grind, the constant pursuit of something greater. Even now, he doesn’t dwell on being nominated for Goalkeeper of the Year. It’s just another chapter in his story—one marked by resilience and determination. 

Grande’s story is, in many ways, the story of countless athletes—constantly striving for perfection, their achievements often overshadowed by their struggles. The relentless pursuit of success, the injuries, the uncertainty of where their path will lead next—it’s a reality that so many athletes face. They exist in an environment surrounded by the extraordinary, where accomplishments are often compared and diminished by proximity to others’ greatness.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grande at the Toldo Lancer Centre

But for those that sit across from Grande, listening to his story, it’s impossible not to see his accomplishments. He’s faced setbacks, and he’s still here—still fighting, still striving, still dreaming. 

 And yet, after two hours of recounting his story—the injuries, the sacrifices, the moments of doubt—Grande finishes his coffee and simply shrugs. 

“That’s just the life of an athlete.”