Personal Statement
My greatest desire is to play college soccer as a member of team that values each of its team members and has high expectations in both academics, honesty, and good sportsmanship. Soccer was the first sport I played when I was three years old and living in Bogota, Colombia. When I was introduced to the game, the soccer coach put me in the goal since I was the biggest kid on the team, and he thought I would cover most of the goal. I found during those years that I was comfortable in the goal, and I was a good communicator with my team mates. Our family returned to Maryland after six years, and I continued to play soccer, and discovered American sports such as baseball, football and basketball. Throughout the latter years of elementary and in junior high school, I played all the sports either at the school and or as a member of a travel team. When I started high school, I realized I could not continue to play all the different sports as school became increasingly more demanding and decided to only play soccer and baseball at school and in travel teams.
Looking back, I realized that even in these early high school years, I was over-scheduled, and my grades suffered. Upon moving to Tegucigalpa, Honduras beginning my junior high school year, my goal was to focus on school to improve my grades, and to continue to play soccer. I greatly improved my grades and played varsity soccer at the American School in Tegucigalpa (AST) as a goalkeeper. I found that the rhythm of play here was quicker and more aggressive than that which I experienced in Maryland even as compared to the travel teams. I also had to overcome the cultural and language challenges as my coaches only spoke Spanish and the primary language on the field was Spanish. I have grown in life experience and soccer skill level and as a result, beginning summer 2018, I was competitive enough to play in the Honduras’ Liga Juvenil sub-18 Fuerzas Basicas Olimpistas (FBO) team. I will continue to play on this team throughout my senior year. The Olimpia FBO team is highly competitive and my skill level will continue to improve to better prepare me to compete for a spot on a college soccer team.
