Personal Statement
My name is Zoe Wright and I am a student athlete who will play soccer in college. Since I was 4 years old, soccer has been a huge part of my life. With it, I have learned the values of teamwork, competition, perseverance, and sacrifice. I can comfortably say that soccer has played a significant role shaping me into the person I am today.
When I first started playing soccer I had little idea what is was doing. Unlike many of the girls I play with now, I don't come from a “soccer family.” I knew very little about the sport in general. My perspective of soccer was simply shaped by the dismal recreational league coaching and a handful of rowdy 6 and 7 year olds that chased the ball wherever it went. It wasn't until many years later that I began to understand the game when I was introduced to club soccer, starting much later than the girls I play with today.
The prospect of working to my talents and honing my skills was a foreign but exciting idea. Watching myself and the players around me actually learning and improving was a defining moment in my career. I have been very fortunate to have a series of great coaches from my very first club coach, who is now an assistant head coach at a Top 20 D1 program, all the way to my current club and high school varsity coaches. Nick Mulvaney, my club’s Director of Coaching, was one of those early coaches. He instilled in me a love of soccer and an understanding of the game tactically that has only grown with time. My current club coach, Julianne Sitch has experienced what I want to be a part of at the collegiate level, being a member of the first NCAA tournament team at DePaul, which began a legacy that only continues to grow today with DePaul finishing in the Top 10 this year. Julianne is a tremendous mentor for me as to what it takes and looks like to become a great player in every way. Derek Bylsma, my varsity high school coach, has been one of my greatest champions in helping me gain the confidence that I can be a difference maker and a leader regardless of my age or wherever I am placed.
I believe this is what makes me more inclined to programs that focus on continuing the individual development of their players in the context of building a great program. There is something uniquely wonderful about being part of a growing program where the fundamental of individual and team development is the main objective. It allows for the team mates to bond on a deeper level through the commonality of learning new things, and especially awakens the determination in each player for self-improvement in an unique way.
I have experienced this reality firsthand with my club team where we went from a C Division IWSL team four years ago when Nick took us over, to being the first girls team from the City of Chicago to play in the State Premiership Division, becoming the first girls high school team from the State of Illinois to play in the Super-Y League, and with nearly seventy five percent of the team playing up two age groups, we were the first girls high school team from the State of Illinois invited to the Super-Y League North American Finals, and we are not finished yet. And even further I have experienced it with my high school team, Jones College Prep. Jones is the third ranked academic high school in the State of Illinois and ranks in the Top 100 Nationally. Before my freshman year at Jones the team had moved up three divisions in four years winning conference title after conference title. My freshman year we were able to not only win the conference first division, but also the schools first Regional Championship. As a sophomore we repeated as Regional Champions. And for the next two years we have our sights set clearly on bigger things to come. The mix of academic excellence, a driving passion to become a great soccer program, and unprecedented diversity at a high school like Jones is an exciting experience that I look forward to knowing at an even higher level in college.
My goal is to be part of a growing soccer program and work with coaches and players that have the same values as me from a development standpoint on and off the field. My soccer goals are two fold 1) to go from being a good high school and club player to becoming a great soccer player, and 2) helping a program achieve new goals and become a great top tier program.
I understand the path I have chosen is not the conventional one. It would have been the simpler route to switch to a suburban ECNL Club and forgo the battle of being part of growing a club in the city and playing varsity for my high school. But I am confident that my desire to be a great player and be part of helping to build a great program that has a lasting legacy like I have been a part of at my club and my high school will resonate with the college coach that is the perfect fit for both them and me.
