Hey Coach,

Let me just start off by saying that this letter will never be able to fully express how thankful I am to have been able to play under your coaching for years. You watched me go through awkward brace-face years and we’ve spent hours and hours on the field together. During season, I felt like I saw more of you then I saw my own parents, so whenever I got nicknames from you (i.e. “cabrona”, “Maxi”, “Mascherano”, “Soto”), I laughed, because like family, I enjoyed the nicknames you had given me.

When it was time to go our separate ways and I left to play college ball, I looked back at all the years of growth and opportunity I had because of you. I know that I made it here, because you shaped me to be a great player. So whenever I’m feeling down or feeling like I’m not enough, I know you would tell me to “pull my thumb out of my butt” or “show them why he can’t leave you off the field". Thanks for coming to my college games and still coaching me and telling me how I did. Thanks for showing you still care and taking time away from your family just to check up on your player (and maybe yelling at her because she’s not playing the way you know she can play).

Thanks for all the little things you did while I was still your player. Thanks for explaining things a couple extra times, even when I didn’t get it. Thank you for physically lifting my leg off the ground and showing me how to do a step over because I couldn’t do it at 11 years old (now I look back and feel dumb because I couldn’t do a step-over). Thanks for the pre and post game talks, the extra laughs, “doing it for the vine,” appearing in a few of my Snapchats, and just making practice a little more enjoyable.

Although I don’t want to say thank you for the practices of strictly conditioning where our whole team threw up, thanks. I mean, there is definitely a 99.9 percent chance that I cursed your name on every sprint, or “bring your running shoes” text. Nevertheless, I was in the best shape of my life (and somewhere in Texas ya girl might be dying doing the same exact workout). I wouldn’t trade those parachutes or puke sessions for the world.

And for the coach who I lost…
I haven’t forgotten you. You made me so successful, and you had so much faith in me. Every day I get to play the beautiful game, I play for you. I know you’re by my side and while you’re up there, can you tell the soccer gods to throw a couple goals in my favor!

But besides teaching me how to play the game, thank you for teaching me to be a better person. There are so many life lessons you taught me that might have happened by accident, but they stayed with me even off the field. You taught me how to be resilient. You taught me how to be confident and not over think. You taught me to never give up and keep pushing even when it gets difficult. You taught me things that I can carry with me for a lifetime.

But most importantly, Coach, thank you for making me love the beautiful game even more.