Lyneth Restrepo '23 Recruiting Profile

It's an understatement that I have grown up with soccer everywhere. My parents were constantly watching soccer and my whole family are huge soccer fans. When I was little and I would go to Colombia, where my parents are from, and I would always go to the stadium to watch my favorite Colombian team play. When I took my first steps a ball appeared right by my feet and ever since then, it has stayed there. Soccer is my childhood, my passion, my love, my everything. I have learned leadership skills from it, I've learned to socialize, I've learned to be a team player, and most of all I have learned to be myself. Because of soccer, I've noticed where my strengths and weaknesses lay which, as someone who constantly wants to become better, is a very important thing to know. 

I have come across many obstacles throughout playing. When I was younger, and just getting serious about soccer, I wasn't very good compared to the girls my age. I didn't make the premiere team when I tried out and I was devastated. I wanted to stop playing right away but I stuck through it and worked my hardest to get better because if not then I thought I would disappoint my parents and my family who loved the sport. After practicing as much and as hard as I can, I managed to become good enough for the premiere team. When I made the team, I didn't stop pushing myself. I kept going because I was still one of the worse on the team. After all the hard work, I had become a starter. To add on, many of my teammates and my coaches have told me that, since I had joined the team, I had improved so much. 

Since the pandemic of the coronavirus, I have gone through many more obstacles. I had to go through a lot of knee and muscle pain because the sudden stop of playing made my muscles very weak very fast. On top of that, due to being isolated and not being able to go out I had lost some motivation and stopped pushing myself to become better. Once things got warm and the fields opened up, I started playing again yet, I did not get back that motivation that I had lost. It hit me that I lost the motivation and the hunger I had for a soccer career at a college ID camp. I played horrendously. When I looked back at the film and I couldn't believe that I was the one playing. That's when it hit me that if I wanted to go play college soccer at the level I wanted, I had to find that desire that I had, when I didn't make the tryouts, and now work my butt off. I had lost myself for a long time but, since then I have been focusing on my goals. I am ready to push myself to become the best soccer player I could be. 

Not only is soccer my main concentration, academics are too. When it comes to academics, I have always taken them very seriously. I am a perfectionist which means I am constantly trying to get my work done on time and as best as it could be. A lot of people call me a try hard because I try to have my best work done no matter how much stress it causes. I have very high goals academically for both high school and college. I have a better understanding with the STEM subjects than I do with humanities. In college I either want to study Meteorology or Accounting. I had always enjoyed watching storms and keeping up with the weather all over the world and I also seem to have a good natural understanding of math concepts. I am a year ahead in math and in honor science classes. This all means that when it comes to college I want to find something to study that I am passionate about. 

I can’t wait to find a college that will not only be a great fit for me but that I will also have a good time being there. I am so excited for the road ahead of me and I will try my absolute best to keep my chin up high and pursue my goals.