Isabella Leigh '28 Recruiting Profile

I thought long and hard about coming on here, and telling you guys all this amazing stuff. Which I do have some amazing achievements. My 8th grade year (this year) I have already played for Salem High (ma) I’m only in 8th grade this year. Next year I’m already guaranteed a starting spot on varsity. I just recently got a full scholarship/ paid tuition to a club. Truth of the matter is, is that ..  my life has not been an easy one. I’ve watched my mother struggle as a single mom and not one time ever did she ever give up on me or my dream of becoming a professional athlete. We are doing much better now, and things are getting better and better everyday and I’m so happy for that. But I hold this dream near and dear to my heart still and hope more than anything in the world I achieve it. Truth is, I haven’t done all these fancy things, I’ve done a few training sessions and I’ve done the girls Revs camp for two years In a row. Ive played town every spring and fall since I was about 5. I’ve played indoor every year for multiple sessions. Often times we haven’t had the money for the extra training sessions. My mother was offered a full ride scholarship to a university, and then she found out 2 weeks before that she was pregnant with me. My mom gave up her dreams for me. Literally as soon as I could walk, she had a ball at my feet. She even has videos of it. My mom taught me everything she knew about the game. And just like her, I fell in love with it. I didn’t want to come on here and sell you all a dream about me, I was self trained and often worked with her on foot work, and drills, and taking shots. I will forever love her for the skills she has handed off to me. We have not had an easy life. Some of these girls know what it’s like to be able to do every single program or every single camp or jump from club to club. I know what it’s like to have to put your whole entire heart into something to get yourself out of a hard situation. What makes me different is, I know hard. I’ve looked struggle right in the eyes. I’ve seen determination first hand at it’s finest. None of that remotely even puts fear into me now, it’s excites me and it gives me a challenge to work harder. I know what it’s like to be appreciative of every opportunity given. I know what it’s like to feel those doors open up after struggling for so long. I know what it’s like to have heart. My mother has instilled so much of this into me. How to practice your accuracy on a baseball field fence, how to use what you have around you to train yourself. But mainly the few things she has always repeated to me was “it’s not about the skill of the player, it’s about the mentality of the player”, ” Losing is never a loss, but yet, always a lesson”.. and her personal favorite after a bad game “You know, Kobe had the most missed shots in the NBA”.
As much as I’d roll my eyes everytime she’d say these things I think of them often as they have started to ring true the older I get and the more I learn. You learn from these things and you grow, and you become the best you can be with what you have. Most of these girls have no idea that when there’s a pressure involved to want to make it not just for yourself, but for your family, that pressure will drive you places you never thought possible. And mainly, what I have, is heart. I have soul. I am humble, I am teachable, I work hard every day, because I know where I want to be. I’ve had a mom who explained to me what its like to be a single mother and have to give up on something you’ve worked so hard for,  so like she’s told me plenty of times, don’t do this to make up for what I missed out on, do this for you. And you go out there and you don’t worry about who has what, you worry about becoming the best you can be. That being said, what makes me different is the fire, and drive, to never end up back where we were years ago. When we struggled to even afford cleats and shin guards. My playing comes from a place that’s driven by a desire to prove to everyone that I won’t just sit here and be the statistic that everyone thought I would be. I will make it. I worked hard for my talent and my skill, And that’s what makes me different, I know what Its like to work for a dream. And I’ll never stop working for it until I get there, and even when I do get there, I still won’t stop working hard. I don’t come from the best neighborhood with these big fancy lavish homes, I don’t come from a neighborhood where there’s a school full of amazing kids around me.. I come from a place where people barely ever graduate high school… However, I have worked hard to stay out of trouble and be a good kid and keep myself away from all of that bad stuff. I work hard to maintain a friend group who isn’t into stuff like that, and I work hard to maintain my grades and good relationships with my teachers, I work hard to just be an all-around good kid because things like that aren’t just handed out like that around here. More often than not people fall right into the wrong place. I refuse to let this place consume me like it has to others. I will forever put everything I have into maintaining the life I dream of. including someday becoming a D1 soccer player, and more than hopefully someday going pro. I know it said to keep it short and simple, but nothing about me has ever been short or simple. So if you made it this far, I greatly appreciate it. And I would also like you to know that  if you become a future recruiter or coach for a school that I’m interested in, that you should have no doubt in your mind that my hustle goes just a bit harder than most.

Best Regards to all of you, 

Isabella Leigh