Mapathe Fall '15 Recruiting Profile

My name is Mapathe Fall I'm 6'3 and i weight 175 lbs  .  I am a senior at Union city high school School in Union city , NJ. I'm from Senegal , a beautiful place located on the west coast of Africa. However my mom left the country when I was six years old due to the medical condition of my older sister. At age of 14, an old chapter closed and led to a beginning of a new one.

Having to make a sacrifice to leave half of my family behind including my dad, I came here with set goals. In the long term, I need to make my family happy by achieving them and succeeding in what I chose to do.  In the beginning, it was a difficult transition for me. I felt out of place everywhere I went, especially at school. There were plenty times I would almost call my father to beg to come home. I felt lonely and I lost sight of my goals and almost gave up. However, my love for soccer really helped me pick myself back up. During that first school year, I met Coach Ruben, who was the assistant soccer coach.  Although, we had a difficulty understanding one another because neither of us spoke English very well, we had no problem communicating through gesture and expression. He then introduced me to coach Shapiro, the head coach of the soccer team. Meeting him changed my prospective on many things. I achieved awards , made friends and along the way I really made a difference in my learning skills because my confidence level began to increase. During my three years of high school, i've been in the varsity team and i was named  second team all county twice  and first team north 1 group 4 schools in NJ. 

"Every single day I wake up and commit to myself to becoming a better player .Loosing spurs me on to work harder. One of my most prominent strengths is that  I never give up on and off the field and leave nothing of myself at the end of a game. .   I am a very hard working, competitive person academically and athletically. I have a strong and positive spirit when it comes to tasks and challenges. I continually challenge myself to be the best I can be and will study longer, train harder, and keep persevering until I accomplish my goals and those of my coaches..  To give credit for my drive and ambition, there are many important motivational factors for me at hand. When I arrived in the United States, my mother was already doing her best to provide a comfortable life for my sisters. She made the ultimate sacrifice to leave her entire life and family in Senegal to take care of the rest of our family that resides here. Knowing all this, it pushed me to try and excel at everything. Seeing my mom shed tears and continuously struggle for us gave me the extra motivation. Even during those tired times, when I felt alone, my mother was always there for me. Family gave me the discipline I needed to keep pushing my way through those first few months as a United States resident.

In the beginning, it was truly hard. I never would have thought that I would have achieved so much until today, as I am writing this with hopes of being able to contribute from my experiences and my background to your school.  It has always been a goal of mine to play soccer in college. And I look forward to accomplishing that goal in the near future.