Dani Silver
I began playing soccer at the age of three and around 10 I started playing competitive soccer. My first club team I joined was a 95′ girls Desert Elite team that Tamera was coaching at the time. For one year I played for Tamera, and in that year we beat the number one team in the state and won a team award for best sportsmanship in our state league. Despite these amazing feats in just one year, I left that Desert Elite team and once I did, I realized the profound effect Tamera had on those she coached and how much more my soccer career would have benefited if I had remained on her team.
As most kids and parents assume, I thought it was best for me to seek out the best possible team to play for, which was Sereno at the time. I played for them for a few years and then moved to Del Sol to finish out my competitive soccer career through the high school age. For those next seven years, I was just a number, a player, a competitor, but I was not a person. My team’s following the move were passed through power hungry coaches only looking for success on paper and the next big female soccer star. They were not concerned with the player’s well-being or their overall future.
Eventually, I got to the age of knowing I wanted to play college soccer. I began contacting college coaches with no help from my current club coach. By my junior year I had a few D1 schools who were showing interest but unfortunately, one bad injury later and I missed the recruiting window. Come August of my senior year I was scrambling for any opportunity to play at the next level. I began looking into small D3 schools and fortunately, found two who wanted to recruit me. In September of my senior year I committed to the University of Puget Sound to pursue an undergraduate degree in exercise science and better yet, play soccer.
What are the take aways from this rant? Well for starters, if you want to play college soccer, you do not need to be on a “number one caliber” club team playing for a coach who does not help their players in all aspects of the game and the self. Looking back, what I needed most at that critical time was a supporter, a friend, and a coach, and the only coach I ever had with that full package was Tamera. If you are looking to play college soccer or to just join a team and see where soccer takes you, join ASA and USA, because they will foster your growth on the soccer field as well as off the field and if you want to reach certain goals and dreams, Tamera will find a way to make it happen.