Cibulka’s Veteran Leadership Shines for Women’s Soccer

Fourth-year midfielder Jaimee Cibulka began playing soccer when she was five-years-old in a recreational league in her hometown of Woodridge, IL. Despite having no family ties to the sport, she said her love for the sport grew more and more with every passing game. With a love for running, soccer gave her the chance to do something she loves while playing with a team of people.

Throughout her career at Loyola, Cibulka has appeared in 69 total games, starting in 40 of them. She’s recorded eight total goals and eight assists, including two goals so far this season in matches against the University of Dayton and Fordham University. 

By middle school, Cibulka knew she wanted to play soccer in college. To become a stronger player, Cibulka said she amped up her training and began to take the game more seriously. When the time came to pick a college, Cibulka said she knew Loyola was the place for her after her first step on campus.

“I could just feel that the team was a family,” Cibulka said. “The athletic department kind of mirrored the same thing. Everyone knows everyone and they genuinely want you to succeed here both as a student and as an athlete. The culture ultimately spoke volumes”

Cibulka said the program’s proven success was another major draw for her. When Cibulka joined the program, women’s soccer had won four consecutive conference titles in the Missouri Valley Conference, beginning in 2018 and ending with Cibulka’s first year in 2021. 

Following Cibulka’s first season of collegiate soccer, in which she appeared in 18 games, started in two and recorded two goals and an assist, Loyola transferred to the Atlantic-10 conference, a move Cibulka said only helped the program improve.

“I think as a team it’s forced us to utilize our talents in a lot better of a way,” Cibulka said. “We’re playing against good teams that will punish us if we’re not at our best, so it’s really forced that communication and making sure that we’re paying attention to the little details.”

Cibulka said despite the differences in the teams they face in the A10, she believes the Ramblers have made great strides in playing at that level of competition  n the years she has been here. Cibulka said since the transition to the A10, the team has continued to improve. She added she hopes the team builds on their success thus far and finishes the season strong.

Head coach Angela Staveskie said two phrases come to mind when she thinks about Cibulka — ‘hard-working’ and ‘consistent’— which she said describe Cibulka both on the field and in the classroom. Staveskie added she knows Cibulka is going to give her all in all endeavors.

Staveskie said in the four years Cibulka has been with the program she has continued to develop her abilities on the field as well as in her confidence in her own leadership abilities, a talent she now uses to uplift teammates and ensure the entire team is consistently operating at a high level. 

“She’s always been a hard working kid,” Staveskie said. “As she grew, she let her play speak for itself by being someone that was always looking to get extra touches, always putting in more work when no one was watching, just getting that extra work in. So I’ve just seen her grow in her confidence of the type of hard working person that she is.”

Fellow fourth-year midfielder Taylor Harrison echoed Staveskie’s sentiment, describing Cibulka as someone who gives it her all at practice and in games.

“She’s always just the first one out there, the last one to leave, always trying to learn something from the coaches,” Harrison said. “She gives 110% every single day at practice. She’s someone that we rely on a lot on the team, and we’re so grateful that we can have that consistency and hard work on the field and off.”

Staveskie said Cibulka has high expectations and standards for herself as well as for her teammates, and said her mentality and overall passion for the game has rubbed off on other players in the program as well, making her a strong leader. 

Through her hard-work and consistency in games, Cibulka has become an integral part of the team over her four years. Last season, Cibulka started in all 18 games, putting in multiple 90-minute shifts across the season. Despite the added pressure of being an important part of the team, Staveskie said Cibulka has handled it well.

Staveskie said Cibulka has earned her playing time through her time at Loyola. She said she is always prepared and can convert on the field, even in high pressure moments. 

This year, the women’s soccer team has a roster of 32 players, the majority of whom are underclassmen. Harrison and Staveskie commend Cibulka’s leadership abilities, especially in giving younger players someone to look up to as a model example of an elite player and student-athlete while also emphasizing Cibulaka’s ability to connect with her teammates.

“She’s always urging them to reach out to her just to ask a question if they have it, soccer related or just offering a piece of advice,” Harrison said. “She can kind of offer that advice to those people who are getting limited minutes this year and maybe wanting more like what else they can do. She’s just the right person to reach out to for that.”

Harrison emphasized how Cibulka cares about the people around her whether they be her teammates or close friends. She highlighted Cibulka’s focus on being intentional in her relationships with coaches and teammates to help foster the best possible environment for everybody in the team, making her an ideal team captain, according to Harrison.

In her last year with the Ramblers, Cibulka said her main goal for the remainder of the season is to take things one day at a time.

“With this being my last year, I’m just showing up everyday and I want to enjoy being with my teammates and playing soccer and just that mindset of taking it one day at a time,” Cibulka said. “It’s been really what’s been getting me through this year and leaning on my friends too.”

In addition to savoring her last year at Loyola, Cibulka said she hopes that her time with the program will have a long lasting impact on her remaining teammates.

“I just wanna leave the program better than I found it and just instill in the people around me what it means to be a part of this team at this school,” Cibulka said. “I  don’t really care about stats or minutes or games specifically, I think all that takes care of itself when you have a well functioning program so I just want to kind of instill in all the girls returning what it means to be a student athlete here at Loyola.”