« Women’s Soccer 2020-21

Valentine Pursey

School
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
Position
Midfield
Major
Sports Management

Classroom

Pursey is maintaining a 3.84 GPA as a sport management major. She is also pursuing a business certificate from the Kelley School of Business.

She has been named to the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll and IUPUI Academic Advisor’s List every semester and earned Horizon League All-Academic Team recognition in 2019.

Hoping to work in soccer after graduation, Pursey has accepted an internship with the Indy Eleven of the NASL. She will be an Operations and Camps Intern, tasked with the gameday logistics for the Eleven. She will also help build and grow their current summer program.

Character

Valentine has an innate ability to lead and drive her teammates, while also possessing a natural maturity and personable demeanor that helps her connect on a number of levels.

She takes specific pride in having stepped out of her comfort zone to serve on selected NCAA panels in the past year, hosted by the NCAA Office of Inclusion. In doing so, she had the opportunity to lead open discussions about how international students were impacted by recent events. A native of England, Pursey was able to provide first-hand knowledge about being an international student-athlete to prospective student-athletes.

Through the IUPUI Sports Management Club, she has also focused her efforts into building the promotion of the game and her team, setting up a series of first person interviews highlighting the program.

Valentine’s drive and initiative impacts all of those around her as she’s taken the program to new heights on the field, increased the promotional efforts surrounding her team and helped grow the game through strategic partnerships and volunteer efforts in Central Indiana.

Community

Since coming to IUPUI, Pursey has made a point to continue to grow the game at a grassroots level. As an intern with Elite Athletic Trend, she’s worked with industry professionals to develop Kids Fit programs for youth soccer players of all ages and skill levels throughout Central Indiana. She also worked with local businesses to help develop sponsorship opportunities and organized events on both a small and large scale. 

She’s worked with the Indiana Olympic Development Program (ODP) in player evaluation and been involved in both TopSoccer and STAR Soccer.

Beyond soccer, Pursey has also participated in community service initiatives as a meal server at Wheeler Mission Ministries in downtown Indianapolis and helped fill and deliver boxes of food to those in need through Gleaners Food Bank.

Along with her teammates, she’s served as a buddy volunteer in the STAR Soccer program, working with kids with special needs to participate in soccer programming.

Competition

On the field, Pursey made an immediate impact on the Jaguars program, helping lead a senior laden group to a Horizon League Championship as a freshman in 2017. She scored all four goals in the Jags’ three-game run through the conference tournament and eventual NCAA tournament birth.

She was a All-North Region second team and All-Horizon League first team honoree in 2019 following a junior season in which she led the team in goals (8), assists (6), points (22) and game-winners (4). Pursey led the Horizon League in goals (13) as a freshman and was selected to the Horizon League All-Freshman team.

Heading into her senior season, Pursey has totaled 25 goals, 11 assists, and 61 total points, while having also tallied 13 game winners. She ranks among IUPUI’s all-time leaders in virtually every offensive category and her 13 goals her freshman year were one shy of tying the program’s single-season record.

Pursey has five career multi-goal games, including a pair of hat tricks in 2017.