Hannaoui Brings Experience, Leadership to Women's Soccer

Hannaoui Brings Experience, Leadership to Women's Soccer
Posted: Sep 29, 2020

With her senior season on the horizon, Leila Hannaoui will look to lean on her experiences both on and off the field to lead Tiffin once soccer returns in the spring.

The midfielder can definitely say that she has been playing soccer longer than most of her teammates, having started officially at the very young age of three. Even before that, though, soccer was a formative part of Hannaoui's life.

"I have a picture, actually, of my dad - I couldn't even walk and he was holding me by my hands and I was kicking a soccer ball," said Hannaoui.

Hannaoui's father is from Morocco and ensured that opportunities in soccer would be plentiful. He was her coach growing up, all the way from the beginning through high school.

"He was definitely a big influence for me when it came to sports," added Hannaoui. "I tried other sports but soccer was always my favorite and I knew from an early age that this sport was going to be a big part of my life. He'll still come to watch my games at Tiffin and it means so much that we can bond over the sport and share a love for it."

Her journey with the sport has not come without its challenges, however, as Hannaoui was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11.

"It was a lot in the beginning," said Hannaoui. "I remember asking my doctor if I could still play soccer or if I could even still go to school. I think a lot of young kids and their families have a lot of fears when they are first diagnosed of how life might be changed forever."

"It doesn't make things impossible, it just makes them a little more difficult. I was able to grow and mature because of it and always just need to remember to eat healthy and take care of my body a little more diligently than a lot of people. With the life lessons I've learned from the disease, I wouldn't change the position I'm in today. For all the little kids that are scared, I'd say as long as you do what you have to do you can do anything that anyone else can."

Eventually, Hannaoui's path brought her from her home in Weirton, West Virginia to Tiffin in 2017.

"I decided to come to Tiffin because both athletics and academics are a high priority here. It felt like home when I came to visit," said Hannaoui.

Hannaoui has been a starter since day one for the Dragons, starting all 14 games as a freshman and making the starting lineup in 43 of her 45 career contests. In her three seasons, she has recorded one goal and two assists, but her impact has been felt in a much larger way than just the stat sheet, setting up the Dragon offense with great ball control and pinpoint passing. Following her junior season in 2019, she was named Honorable Mention All-GMAC.
 
"Leila is such an incredible person both inside and outside of soccer," said head coach Dean Joseph. "All the players respect her and look up to her because she is so hard working. She leads by example. She is a very good player who has an extremely good passing range."
 
Hannaoui has also had many opportunities outside of her sport while at Tiffin, including serving as an officer for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and receiving opportunities to develop as a leader. In the spring of 2019, she was able to attend the NCAA Leadership Forum in Orlando, Florida after getting nominated by a former member of the TU athletic training staff.
 
"It was a life-changing experience and I was able to incorporate what I learned from it into both SAAC as the vice president as well as with my team. I'll never forget the experience, it truly changed my life."
 
Her leadership abilities may have and will continue to be tested in new ways this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic ended the team's 2020 spring season prematurely and has now postponed the 2020 fall slate to the spring of 2021.
 
"The team has had an incredible attitude about it," said Joseph. "All that they have done is looked at it from another perspective. They see it as an opportunity to prepare properly and grow for the spring season. As a result, they have trained incredibly well. They are showing good signs of improvement and promise."
 
Once her playing career at TU comes to an end, Hannaoui's future plans include going into physical therapy school. Long-term, she would like to open up her own practice, keeping up that connection to sports and soccer that has been instrumental to her path to get to where she is today.