Black History Month: The LeBlanc Effect

Photo credit should read JOHN G. MABANGLO/AFP via Getty ImagesIn soccer, it’s important to have a good goalkeeper. To have a great goalkeeper, however, can take you from good to great to the level of the world class. Canada is lucky that for 17 years, they had a world class goalkeeper in their ranks. That goalkeeper was Karina LeBlanc.

LeBlanc was born in the United States to a father from Dominica and a mother from Jamaica. However, she grew up in Dominica until she was 8 years old, when she moved to British Columbia, Canada. It wasn’t until she was 12 that Karina LeBlanc got into soccer, but she found quickly that she was a natural for the game. By 1997, she was considered one of the top…