Still several weeks away from the start of her sophomore year at UCR, Elisa Pogu is volunteering at The Rinks – Corona, where she teaches skating and inline hockey fundamentals to kids and novices in the sport.
That the UC system starts so late also has Pogu sitting and considering a unique opportunity hardly ever afforded to anyone her age: the possibility of playing professional inline hockey in France.
"It's actually a topic that's spoken around my house right now," Pogu said.
A rookie on the U.S. Women's National Inline Hockey Team, Pogu is enjoying the final weeks of a productive summer that took her to Bucaramanga, Columbia for the FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships, the most prestigious tournament in the sport. She's also competing for several rec-league and competitive area teams, including the prominent L.A. Pama Lady Cyclones in West Covina.
Though excited to continue her studies at UCR while working towards a business degree with a sports management concentration, that opportunity to develop as an emerging young inline hockey player in her native France as part of a committed professional league continues to tug at her emotional prudence.
"It's something that I really want, because it's just different. It's once in a lifetime. I don't even care if it's one or two months in France. It's the fact that I'm going to be living [there]. It'd be a different atmosphere, just different hockey…it's the fact that I could say that ‘I lived in France for a couple months.'"
A native of Biarritz, a French resort city on the Atlantic coast 10 minutes from the Spanish border, Pogu's family also lived in Virginia before relocating to Corona in time for her freshman year of high school. She played for the varsity team at Corona – Santiago while appearing in tournaments for the U.S. girl's national junior team, eventually making the jump to the senior team this summer as its youngest participant.
That meant one crash course practice with the national team in Miami before the flight to Colombia, where the team would begin the tournament as a co-favorite with Canada. The Americans' five tournament championships since the first women's tournament was held in 2002 is the most out of any country, though in Bucaramanga this summer the Canadians jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the gold medal game and held on for a 4-2 win for their fourth title.
It was a difficult blow for Pogu and the Americans, who had eliminated Australia in the quarterfinals and Mexico in the semifinals by identical 7-0 scores.
"Honestly, it's a bad thing," Pogu said of finishing as runners up.
"I am proud of myself. Don't get me wrong. And I'm proud of all the girls on my team. Before the game, we had a great speech in the locker room. We were there. We were very encouraging. So it was a great atmosphere, just the girls themselves. But otherwise, I believe we should have won the gold. The silver is just not enough for me."
Though the men claimed their 14th world championship in 18 overall tournaments, Pogu and the women's team will have to wait until 2013 for revenge – and they'll have the benefit of playing home games.
It was announced earlier this summer that the 2013 FIRS Inline World Championships will be heading to The Rinks, a trio of roller rinks in Corona, Irvine and Huntington Beach, and back to the epicenter of the sport's popularity and growth. The men's and women's championship games will be played at Honda Center, the arena that at one time hosted the Anaheim Bullfrogs, a successful Roller Hockey International franchise both on the court and in the stands, where they routinely set league attendance records.
It'll be a challenge to crack the U.S. team's roster next summer, considering the location of the tournament in comparison to Bucaramanga, a barrier that prevented several teammates from taking part.
Still, considering the growth she's exhibited in the sport as the 2012 team's youngest skater, and the confidence in her own ability, she's clearly a prominent developing player who will continue to be in the U.S.' plans for the considerable future.
"My speed is good. I'm good with that," said Pogu, a forward who was used primarily opposite Chelsi Wells as a right wing in the 2012 tournament. "Really, one thing I want to learn is to be calm when I have the puck, because I feel like especially with the World Championships, the title itself got me nervous. So I felt like when I have the puck, I rushed it too quick. I think I need to learn where I need to just treat it like it's the same game, treat it like it's like playing women's in Corona or whatever the case is, and just play my game. I feel like in Columbia I was pretty nervous, and it got to me at some points where I would just rush the puck and make a bad pass, or wrong play, or just something that could have been better if I was calmer. That's something I'll definitely be working on."
After the tournament, Pogu revealed that the praise the veterans offered her and their faith in her ability was among the most rewarding aspects of the entire experience.
It's part of a balanced approach in which she's cognizant of her ability and the desire to continue to improve.
"I'm only 19, and the fact that I'm on the national team, it's incredible. That's the highest you can do, the national team," Pogu said.
"But I'm glad that I have room for improvement. If I said today, when you asked me that question, ‘What do you want to work on?', and I said ‘Nothing', there's no point of the game. There's always got to be goals that you've got to strive for. Still, for the World Championships – we're still aiming for that gold, since we didn't win. Individually, there's room for improvement and there's stuff I want to learn and stuff I want to get better at. I'm glad that I'm not perfect or super good. I wouldn't want to be known as ‘Oh, she's amazing. She just knows the game.'"
Both she and the national team understand that several months abroad spent playing professionally could benefit her in an attempt to gain a firmer foothold on the team's roster next summer and beyond. Though the French women's leagues don't pay its athletes, it's more about the experience of living in her family's home in Biarritz, perhaps taking correspondence or online courses while furthering her own development on the court.
It's both a terrific opportunity and a significant impending decision.
"It's something I'm definitely looking into, because I'm not rushing to graduate. I'll get my studies done. I know that," Pogu said.
"But I'm not looking to stay in school for maybe six years, either. I'll graduate."
