Janell Alameida '13 Recruiting Profile

The youngest child in my family, and growing up was like no other childhood.  I have great sisters that helped mold me into the 17 year old teenager I am now.  My family has always told me to dream big, but you can only achieve your goals if you put your heart and soul into it.  As a kid, I have always dreamed bigger than space.  I have had dreams of being a jet pilot, astronaut, Olympic gold medalist, fire fighter, teacher, and more recently, to be the USA women’s soccer goalkeeper.

Whenever I would tell someone my dreams, I’ve gotten either good comments or bad ones.  For a while there have been negative comments, that it’s too unrealistic and I need to be practical.  I believed in these negative comments for 3 or 4 years, so I tried to think smaller, like, a Hawaii college starter goalkeeper, but even this was too big to some people. 

It all started in 2011 when I first got the call from the AYSO Nationals, Kailua girls’ youth 16-19 coaches asking me to be his #1 goalkeeper for the Nationals at Palm Beach, Florida.  When I said yes, the following events were countless weekends of fundraising for over $2,000 in expenses.  It was such a relief to find out that the whole team was able to raise enough money for everyone to go.  The hardest part was the training I went through to win.  Of course, that training was nothing compared to the summer heat we endured when we first walked outside of the airport in Florida.  The team was getting nervous because we had to run in this heat.  It all seemed impossible, but after a couple of practices before the games started, our body temperature had adjusted to the humidity.  It was especially hard for me with having to wear a long sleeved goalie jersey; instead I was able to wear a green penny, which was much cooler.  This worked out for me even though my elbows paid for it later on that week from all the diving and saves I made to get us through to the semi finals with the help of my awesome team.  That game changed my life forever.

It’s the semi finals and the score is tied at 1-1.  We are against a California team with a great offense.  But with Sierra Kadooka as my sweeper, I had great confidence in us going to the finals.  Upset, my confidence was gone when my stopper, Caitlin Hooker, slide tackled a girl in the box.  It was a one on one challenge with very little time left, the team started getting worried, but, they still cheered me on saying that I can do this.  With that in mind, I took 2 deep breaths and also believed I can do this.  Just before the girl kicked that soccer ball at full speed, I tracked the ball and in that split second, dove with my body flat out in the air and blocked that kick.  The team was relieved but our opponents took that opportunity to try and shoot again.  I saw it and immediately ran over and done point blank in front of the girl just as she was going to make the shot.  She was not alone and on my way to taking the ball into my possession, 3 girls kicked me in the head and ribs.  Although I was in pain, nothing was compared to that amazing feeling I had in those couple of second I was in the air, saving that possible tie breaker.  After that save, my team was able to score the winning goal just before the game was over. 

After that experience, I knew there was nothing else in the world that I would want to do most for the rest of my life, than to play soccer and keep getting that feeling for as much and as long as I can.  We may not have won the championships, but I won the knowledge of what I want to do for the rest of my life, and finally knowing the one thing I love to do the most, and that’s to play pro soccer.