Hamza Zayan '23 Recruiting Profile

When I was five, I woke up one morning and came to see my parents were watching Brazil play. So I watched the game with them. I watched players like Ricardo Izecson (Kaka) and quickly realized that soccer was the sport for me. Since then, I haven’t missed a single game with my parents. Soon after that game, I was playing on a team; after that first game, my love for soccer only increased. Years later I am playing in state tournaments and experiencing how it is to lose important games. After having many winning seasons before, losing really humbled me. I began to understand how it is to lose. Being in RCL for the past couple of years, I realized that I needed to achieve more and get to that next level. The next year I scored two goals, one of which led our team to win the state in one of the most challenging games I’ve ever played. Seeing what I have been working hard to begin to pay off pushed me to want more and continue to advance my skills. The following year I was chosen to be on our ECNL team. Since then, I have been pushing myself to be the best I can be as both a player, a student, and a person overall. 

I never truly realized the number of obstacles that I would be confronted with over the years. Recently, COVID-19 changed how things work and operate. Playing with masks in the early stages of the pandemic was a setback for many of us, but along the way, I encountered many challenges including injuries. Not being able to play soccer was a difficult time but I also grew to love the game even more because I was away from it for so long, it made me miss playing in games and sharing those moments with my teammates.  These challenges set me back a lot, but I was able to bounce back and become my normal self again. I came back and quickly became the top scorer both in my team and one of the top scorers in our ECNL league;   What I learned from these setbacks is that nothing ever comes easy—-being injured is a setback that puts you behind by a lot. These setbacks influenced and motivated me to keep playing because of the work and dedication I put into improving myself  to get ahead again. I’ve learned that confidence is one of the most important things both on and off the field, and that it is needed to show my abilities. Overall, I believe that I will be a good fit in any college team because of my ability to be coached easily, to challenge myself, to try new things, and my academic ability which will make it easy on me and the college to keep me in the program.