Best of U. .... Stony Brook University's Debbie Aller

Best of U. .... Stony Brook University's Debbie Aller

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The second Best of U. feature of 2009-10 profiles Stony Brook University women's soccer player Debbie Aller. She is a junior defender for the Seawolves, who reached the program's first-ever America East title game in 2008. Stony Brook is currently 5-1-1 in America East play and is looking to clinch the no. 2 seed for the tournament with a win Thursday night at Maine. The following piece was written by Jeremy Cohen, Stony Brook Athletic Communications Assistant.

 

On the soccer field, Debbie Aller's job is to close doors and limit opportunities. A junior defender on the Stony Brook University women's soccer team, Aller has been a mainstay on a Seawolves defense that has produced 20 shutouts in her two and a half years at Stony Brook.

But off the field, Aller's main focus has been opening doors and creating opportunities for others.

The start of Aller's opportunity came in the summer of 2008 when she took part in a Study Abroad program in Tanzania. Aller enjoyed it so much that she decided she would try and return the following summer. So she applied to a program through the Undergraduate Reasearch & Creative Activities department (URECA) that would allow her to combine study abroad with an independent research project in the summer of 2009.

An anthropology and environmental studies major that carries a 3.57 GPA, Aller was accepted to the program in April. So she packed her bags and embarked on a two week trip, with Stony Brook classmate Michelle Pizer, this past summer to the Kondoa district of Tanzania for a research project on "Availability and Quality of Drinking Water in Tanzania." The purpose of Aller and Pizer's research project was to study the water availability in the Dodoma Region which is one of driest areas in the country.

While Pizer looked at the social aspects of water availability, Aller focused on the biological part.

"I did four tests on the water. I was looking for total micro-organisms, testing for iron and manganese, looking for total coliform bacteria, and suspended solids," Aller said.  "We wanted to get data on the quality of water in terms of contaminating microorganisms and environmental factors that can inhibit disinfection treatments, particularly the use of ultraviolet radiation."

Aller said that you could tell the people they visited appreciated the work that she and Prizer were doing.

"The best part for me was when we got to a village, seeing how much the people wanted us there," she said. "When we arrived in the village, and when they heard we were coming to help with water, they were very enthusiastic. They all honestly want to know the results to see what is wrong with their water."

Aller, along with Pizer, were recently honored for their work in Tanzania by the office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University as the Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URECA) Researcher of the Month. The biological work that Aller did, however, was just a small part of the impact she had while in Tanzania.

Aller had also brought soccer balls with her when she visited in the summer of 2008. After the reaction she received she decided that she was going to bring a whole lot more on this trip.

After learning that she was going to be able to do the independent research project in Tanzania, Aller decided to collect old practice jerseys, cleats, shin guards, running shoes, socks, and balls, from other Stony Brook student-athletes, that she could bring over to Tanzania to distribute.

And collect she did. First, she asked her teammates on the women's soccer team to donate equipment when they were cleaning out their lockers. She collected equipment that most likely would have been thrown away.

Aller then went to other teams at the University and asked for their equipment as well. By the time she was done she had acquired over 50 pounds of equipment to take over to Tanzania. It was so much that she had to take two extra suitcases on the plane with her when she left for Tanzania.

When she arrived in Tanzania, she donated a majority of the equipment that she collected to an orphanage in Kondoa. But she also handed out soccer balls at each village that she conducted research at.

"The children usually will make [soccer] balls out of string - or just trash and will kick that around," Aller said. "So when I gave them a real soccer ball, they didn't stop smiling."

After being around Aller for almost three years and seeing what she has done both on and off the field, Stony Brook women's soccer head coach Sue Ryan believes that Aller is the perfect role model for what the college student-athlete should be.

"The essence of college athletics is taking what you learn on the field and using it off the field to help others," Ryan said.

"Deb has done that, she has taken her passion for soccer and used it to help other people. She is the embodiment of the term student-athlete."

The passion for soccer that Ryan talks about has led Aller to be an anchor on the Seawolves defense during her two and a half years at Stony Brook. But her success on the field has not come without its share of obstacles.

A local product from Ward Melville High School in Setauket, N.Y., Aller came off the bench as freshman and helped the Seawolves to the America East semifinals at New Hampshire. Stony Brook dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to the Wildcats but for Aller the news was doubly as bad as she broke her leg in that game. The injury was serious enough that it forced her to sit out the spring season as well as the summer.

Showing her commitment and determination, Aller worked her way back onto the field and ended up starting the final 10 games of the 2008 season as the Seawolves put together their best season in program history, advancing to the America East title game for the first time since 2002.

The second-seeded Seawolves lost a close 2-1 decision to top-seeded Boston University in the title game, with Aller starting and playing 63 minutes. The 63 minutes played is even more incredible considering that Aller found out after the contest that she had been playing with a stress fracture in her hip.

At the team's 2008 postseason banquet, Ryan presented Aller with the Coaches award for the tremendous adversity she had overcome not only in recovering from her leg injury but also the courage she showed in battling through her stress fracture.

Forced out of another spring season once again, Aller knew she needed to rehab during the summer if she was to return to the line-up for her junior season. So while she was in Tanzania conducting her research, she made sure she worked out at local university tracks to help rehab her injury.

Aller admitted that she wondered if she would be able to come back from her second major injury. But there was one thing more than anything else that drove her to get back on the field with her teammates.

"After having to leave the championship game against Boston University; my only thought this summer was to rehab and get back on the field to help my team win an America East championship this season," Aller said.

Ryan had Aller take it slow early in the 2009 season, not wanting her to come back too quickly from the injury. Aller returned to the starting lineup on Sept. 13 against Providence in the Seawolves sixth game of the season. She then made her presence known three days later at Yale, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.

The goal against Yale aside, as a defender, Aller still knows what she does best - she closes the door on opponent's opportunities.

But not lost on Aller is the opportunity that Stony Brook University has given her to also open doors for others.

"Stony Brook University gives you so many opportunities. It [Stony Brook] can open a lot of doors for you," Aller said. "You just to have to be ambitious and want to make the most of that opportunity."

Safe to say that as many doors as Deb Aller has closed on the field, she has opened up just as many off it.  

America East: Developing Champions in Academics, Athletics and Leadership