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About Me
My Dream, My Life, My Fight, My Joy, My Pain, My Struggle, My Climb
Since I was 11 years old soccer has been my passion. I remember watching the women’s U.S. national team fight their way through the World Cup and lose to Japan in the final. I was devastated. I had been so invested that I could barely hold back tears. From that day on I trained everyday no matter what. I wasn’t allowed to play club so any coaching that I had was elementary but I was grateful for any help I received.
I knew I was behind all the other kids who played on club teams and had private coaching but that didn’t stop me; instead, it drove me to train as hard as possible. Not once did I doubt that I could make it and deep inside I believed in myself in a way I couldn’t explain. I dreamed about playing professionally, fantasized about signing with a D1 school, and felt as if I was destined for it and nothing would or could stop me. I trained for hours the best I knew how to. I woke up early in the mornings and went for runs, and I played with friends at the park any day I could get enough people to show up. I begged and begged my parents to let me play club. Finally when I was 14, they caved and began searching for a team for me to join.
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However, because I had no prior experience, club teams wouldn’t give me a chance until one coach named Dean Freeman decided to give me a shot. I made the team and began to improve rapidly. Our first game I scored a goal and the next game I scored, and the next and the next. I could put the ball in the back of the net. Many of my goals were sloppy, a product of pure determination made possible by a head, knee, chest, stomach, a slide, a toe poke— whatever I could get on the ball to earn a goal.
As I gained momentum in soccer and saw doors opening for me, my parents set up a meeting with the owner of a local indoor soccer arena who knew a lot about helping players get recruited for college. I remember the day clearly for a couple reasons, the first being that it was one of the last times I would ever be in the same room with both my parents and the second being that what the owner said shocked me. “You started too late, kid. D1’s not in the cards.” What? I thought I had been killing it—I was the lead goal scorer in both club AND high school and I was being told I was not good enough.
“Basically you’re a big fish in a small pond,” he continued. The rest of the meeting was a blur as he told my parents to look into smaller D2 schools as options and to not get my hopes too high. As we headed back home I felt my parents’ disappointment in addition to my own. My dad was trying to be positive, saying that nothing was wrong with D2 and that it was a good option either way. I spoke to my big brother, Jack, about it right after. I don’t remember exactly what Jack said but it was something to the effect of “screw that guy, do you”. And then after two hours I was over it. I was going to prove him wrong. I was going to prove everyone wrong. I was going to get a D1 scholarship no matter the odds. And in 2021 I did.
I have been coaching for over ten years and I have played at the simi pro and college Division one level. Through it all, I feel I have had the blessing of learning how to achieve my goals no matter what. Although I’ve chosen to end my athletic career in soccer, I have started a new path in jujitsu. I am pursuing a master’s in sports psychology with an emphasis on soccer coaching. I know my coaching career has just begun, and together we can achieve great things. So let’s push the goal!