Hamadi Bakari '15 Recruiting Profile

Hi I’m Hamadi Bakari I was born in Kenya. I moved to the United States in 2004. I had been playing soccer since when I was 5 years old in Kenya. My goal toward playing soccer is reach the professional level of the game. Growing up was hard for my family and I. My family has been poor. We receive food stamps from the government in order for my parents to feed us. I’m one of the nine children my mom has had. When I was in 5th grade I was one of the best soccer players. My parents have always told me “Play hard and give everything you have”. I have battled a lot of injuries in my life from soccer but I never give up no matter how painful it was. I moved from New York to Washington in my 7th grade year and I struggled staying focus in school. I attended Meeker Middle school where they didn’t have a soccer team. I let soccer aside for 2 years and I seemed to lose my focus into soccer and education. My older brother Hassan tried everything he could to get me back in shape but I seemed to be having trouble staying focus with soccer. My freshman year I attended Kent-Meridian High School in Kent, Washington. At KM I wanted to play soccer but the coaches said I needed good grade so I got my grades up. My goal was to make varsity soccer for KM but it has been straight two year since I practiced my skills. I felt like I wasn’t the best anymore. My dad did his best to get into soccer clubs but my family was too poor. We couldn’t afford to pay for it. I made KM JV soccer team I played two games before getting moved down. As I moved down to C-team I was disappointed at myself for not giving everything I had. Coach Chris the C-team coach told me “have fun play hard and you will score”. That made me pretty happy but not super happy. Throughout the season I had fun with C-team. By the end of the season I scored 15 goals, I didn’t play every since game. One of my best game was against Auburn Mountview where I scored 4 goals and 3 of the goals were in second half. In that game I injured my toe. When the season ended Coach Chris said I was the M.V.P. When the season was over my goal was to practice hard during the summer and come back better and then ever. Coach Chris got me into a club team called “BlackStar” but it cost too much money my parents couldn’t afford it. I practiced on my own till I actually broken my right toe, it stopped me from playing soccer. My toe injure took all my summer and half of the school year to heal. My sophomore I didn’t play soccer because of my toe injuries, grades and family issues. I didn’t do much that year I messed up into school and other stuff but I managed not to give up in life no matter what it is. My junior year I had moved from Kent to Tacoma and I attended Lincoln High School. I played soccer for Lincoln and it wasn’t my best season. I played varsity I didn’t play the first 3 games because of paper work. I started every since game that I played. Coach Gibbs moved me around to see where I felt comfortable playing at. I played Outside Midfielder and Forward. I scored 1 goal for Lincoln and made the Tacoma Weekly Sports News Letter. What makes me a good candidate for any college soccer team is that I’m a hard worker and looking to improve in every aspect of the game. It doesn’t matter what the score board says I’m always giving everything I have.  What makes me different from other recruits in character is that I grow up playing the game of soccer and not able to afford to play a club team because of not being able to pay for the team. My academics are different from other recruits because I grow up speaking a second language. It’s very hard for me to pronounce some words in English. I also didn’t get any help from my parent because they don’t speak English I have to translate to them everywhere they go. I’m not the best athlete at playing the game of soccer like before but i am Improving and training everyday so one day I’ll reach my dream. I’m willing to play for any college team. Thank you for taking your time and reading this. –

Hamadi Bakari