Before stepping onto the pitch or taking her first sprint for the University of Calgary Dinos women’s soccer team, Sarah Donick’s day is already defined by precision. The third-year forward operates on an unshakeable, meticulously structured routine that leaves nothing to chance and demands total focus.
For Donick, training like a Dino is not merely about physical effort or athletic ambition; it is an exercise in discipline, an obsessive commitment to showing up and surrendering nothing to chance.
The start of the story
Collegiate athletics was never an explicit goal for Donick during her early years. Growing up in Kelowna, B.C., her path into the sport was influenced by her older sister and uplifted by a tight-knit local athletic community. Although she sampled dance, gymnastics, volleyball and basketball, soccer was the sport that conquered her heart and became the singular realm where her natural capabilities could fully blossom.
“I always wanted to be like my older sister,” Donick said. “There was always that competition in the back of my head because I wanted to be better than my sister. I think it definitely drove my love for the game.”
Making the dream fit
Finding a way into the world of collegiate sports started at Donick’s family home in Arizona. She struck up a conversation with a coach who invited her to a camp at Arizona State University (ASU). A week later, an offer came in to play with the ASU soccer team following her Grade 12 year. Donick wasted no time committing and left for Arizona the day after graduating.
While the new world of Division I soccer was enthralling, the transition was jarring. Donick was separated from the close-knit community that founded her love of the sport and was faced with a party-school atmosphere that ASU and the city of Tempe were known for. As an athlete, this clashed directly with her on-field goals, which were also under pressure as the team worked to find their identity. Out of her home country, unable to work and her life tied exclusively to soccer — playing as fullback rather than her natural forward position — Donick began to feel disconnected and her motivation began to wane.
“I just was kind of falling out of love with the sport. I think because I never had that dream, I don't know if I was ready for it,” Donick reflected.
Reaching out to a few Canadian schools to keep soccer in her life while expanding her world beyond being an athlete, she connected with Dinos head coach Diogo Raposo. The move offered a chance for Donick to keep playing while pursuing her other interests: working and progressing in her business degree.
Adapting, rebuilding, belonging
Returning to her roots as a forward on the Dinos team, Donick felt her instinct to attack the goal begin to kick back in. Her drive to score fueled her on the field and kept her energy soaring.
Beyond U Sports play, competing with the Calgary Blizzard in the Alberta Premier League helped her to adapt to new group dynamics and build up fast chemistry with new teammates. That adaptability has become part of her identity as a player: finding her role in a new environment while continuing to grow as a forward.
Routine, volume and standards
Long before stepping onto the pitch, Donick grounds herself in an unyielding regimen of self-discipline.
“I’m really big on my morning routine,” Donick said. “Like I have to have at least two to three hours before I leave the house.”
Rising between seven and eight in the morning, she locks in a deliberate sequence of staying off her phone for an hour, drinking a large glass of water, completing her skincare routine, journaling outside and brewing fresh coffee for the day ahead.
Rejecting trendy fitness fads like intermittent fasting or hyper-protein obsessions, Donick prioritizes steady physiological balance. Her morning meal is structured around fiber, healthy fats and complex carbs. While the specific components differ, the formula remains steady. She targets a strict 30 grams of daily fiber to maintain energy.
“Women do better when they eat something right away,” Donick explained, “When I eat, I feel like it helps me regulate my body a little bit more.”
Noted Donick and her growing interest in female-specific athletic health and methods to protect her body from intense physical strain.
Balancing student, entrepreneur and athlete
This rigorous schedule is designed to carry her past the pitch, keeping her afloat as she balances the different facets that make up her life. On top of a full five-course academic load, Donick co-owns a jewelry business with her best friend and creates content as a way to bring more attention to U Sports athletes.
“We have so many amazing players, and I think that you honestly get more looks if you're posting. You know what I mean? And people know about you and the school a little more,” Donick reflected.
Between early-week check-ins with her professors to stay on top of her course load during travel games, dedicated coffee-shop study sessions and set study blocks on team buses, her academic and entrepreneurial survival hinges on that same foundational mindset extending into her athletic preparation.
Volume, conditioning and physical standards
Adapting to Calgary’s elevated altitude after growing up at sea level in Kelowna required Donick to fortify her endurance through tactical work. Exhausting yo-yo runs, continuous pitch laps and the demanding Bronco test continually force her lungs to adapt.
Complementing her field work, Donick hits the weight room twice a week, benching 115 pounds and squatting 185 pounds while prioritizing heavy core-stability work to prevent injury.
During the Canada West season, daily team sessions run from 2:45 p.m. meetings through 5 p.m. practices, packed with scrimmages, two-on-two battles and offensive drills.
Navigating consecutive game days on weekends demands immediate post-match protocols, including light cool-down runs, stretching, targeted electrolyte hydration and carbohydrate-heavy meals designed to restore depleted energy reserves.
The test, quad strain and a reset
Athletic discipline is easy to maintain when progress is linear, but it’s tested when the body gives out. Just as Donick was finding her groove on the pitch in the 2025 season, a sudden quad strain shut her down right before the Final Four tournament.
“Everybody kind of just told me like I can’t do anything until the pain’s gone, so that was definitely frustrating mentally,” Donick said.
Donick channeled her aggressive forward energy into sideline leadership, becoming the team’s loudest cheerleader during the high-stakes tournament. Off the field, she relied on deliberate reset rituals such as sauna sessions, cold plunges and quiet evenings on the couch to recharge a mind accustomed to constant motion.
The setback reframed her perspective: recovery was not something to be done after a hard game but a prerequisite for being the strongest player she was capable of being.
Ruthless standards and the home crowd
As the Dinos team integrates a fresh influx of eager rookies, Donick’s personal ethos has become a benchmark for the locker room. To her, training like a Dino means being ruthless, giving 100 percent of whatever you have on a given day, showing up for coaches who sacrifice family time and treating every minute on the pitch as a privilege.
For Donick, that intensity deserves a larger audience. U Sports is often unfairly perceived as casual, but the reality on the field is just as physical and unforgiving as their American counterparts.
“I think that there’s just not a lot of people who like willingly come to watch the game,” Donick said. “It’d be nice to just have like random people who want to come watch, [...] we wanna win. We wanna play for our coaches, for the school, for everybody watching the game. We’re gonna put in 100 per cent work and I don’t think you’ll be bored watching.”
As she navigates morning wake-up calls, carefully organized gear and conditioning runs while continuing to drive the Dinos forward line, her path proves that true athletic mastery is seldom forged by fleeting motivation. Her success as an athlete is built through an unwavering commitment to show up to every game and give her all for her team.
