Dobbin's Last Ride

Striker Isabelle Dobbin turned in a terrific regular season in PACWEST women’s soccer in 2025, sharing the top of the scoring leaderboard finding the back of the net seven times.  She has helped her Douglas Royals to the third seed heading into this weekend’s championship tournament and is hoping to advance to the CCAA nationals hosted in her home province in early November.

She’s been playing soccer for a very long time, entering the sport when she was three years old.  “I think because of my Italian heritage and my Nonno’s passion for soccer, I was always destined to be a soccer player!”

Growing up in Edmonton soccer wasn’t always readily available due to the weather so Dobbin found other sports to keep her busy including basketball, badminton and volleyball.  When she could get outside, she was running, “I was a good cross-country runner, earning MVP in high school. In track and field, I was the zone champion in the 1500m and qualified for provincials in the 200m as well. I still play pretty competitive volleyball, which has been a great way to get acclimated to Vancouver since I am from out of town. Growing up I always had a do-it-all kind of mentality, I would go from sport to sport, team to team, just being as active as I could.”

When she was seven or eight soccer started to become more serious, “I lived in a small town called Devon in Alberta. I was playing local community soccer where my dad was the team coach, our name was even Dobbin’s Goblins. Because of my compete level and desire, my parents thought I needed a higher level of play at that point and decided to bring me into Edmonton to play club soccer.  I started playing in an older age group and was loving every minute of it. My mom always says, ‘behind every great athlete is a parent that’s willing to drive’. When I was sixteen, I was still playing youth soccer at the highest level but also began playing women's soccer. In Alberta, anyone under 18 can play for any team, they just needed a permit. I started playing for any team that would ask, sometimes playing multiple games a day.  It was a great experience that I believe made me physically stronger and faster.”

When it came time for post secondary decisions, Douglas College wasn’t even on her radar.  “I actually completed my Recreation Therapy diploma in 2019, then I was working as a recreation therapy assistant for Covenant Health in Alberta, part of the provincial health authority. At the beginning of 2023, I thought about going back to school to finish my degree. I had thought about different universities and where to go but once I saw Douglas’ campus, I was immediately interested. I did some research, and I liked the small class sizes, a large majority of my diploma directly transferred into the Therapeutic Recreation degree program, and the program coordinator was very helpful and made me feel excited to come to Douglas. Once I was accepted into the school, I emailed the coach (at the time it was Chris Laxton) and expressed my interest in returning to post-secondary soccer. I was so nervous, having been out of the university/college soccer scene for quite some time. But I feel that I definitely made the right decision by reaching out.”

Throughout her soccer career Dobbin has had some incredible experiences and made memorable moments, but one sticks out among the rest, “Earning an assist at the 2023 CCAA Nationals. Earlier that season, in the second last week of the regular season, I detached my retina. I had lost partial visibility in my right eye and had to undergo a number of laser operations, and a gas bubble was placed in my eye for recovery. I missed the final weekend of the season and the provincial tournament, thinking that my season was over. Thankfully, my teammates played phenomenal in provincials and won the tournament, qualifying for nationals. I was able to get permission from my doctor to play in nationals and in the final game I was played through on a long ball, beat the defender and played a left footed cross onto the head of my co-captain Kya Cleto, who scored what would be the game winning goal. This will remain really memorable for me, as I was able to comeback from a huge injury and was able to assist a goal for a supportive and wonderful teammate in her final college game.”

With her post-secondary career starting to wind down and graduation on the horizon, what’s Dobbin’s plan? “Honestly, I have no idea what’s next for me. I am very much a ‘wherever the wind takes me’ kind of person. I am looking forward to graduating next June, it’s been wonderful at Douglas, but I think I am ready to not be a student anymore. I would love to continue working in my field, I am currently working at a day program for older adults/seniors, and I love my job. Similar to soccer, I think I have a calling for working with seniors, I really enjoy being able to bring my energy and creativity to brighten up people’s days. I will definitely continue to play soccer after Douglas. Last season, I joined the North Shore Renegades in the MWSL premier division and loved the team and the coach. I know that they are waiting for me to come back and play, I have gone to watch every game and look forward to playing with them again. I think I will always play soccer, whether its League 1 (I played with Coquitlam Evolution) like last summer or in the premier division with North Shore. Every time I try to take a break from soccer, I just keep coming back!”

She and her Royals teammates are on one last ride together to the PACWEST championship tournament and will meet the Langara Falcons in Saturday’s semi-final game with the winner advancing to the gold medal match where they will meet the VIU Mariners on Sunday.