Dribbling a ball down a field wasn’t something senior Andrea Ramirez ever thought she would take interest in. Back in El Salvador, Ramirez only played volleyball. When she moved to the United States this year, she heard about the soccer team. She said, “A couple of my friends always talked about going to practice and one day I decided to join them.”

“I figured it’d at least keep me in shape,” she said. Despite her only going out to the soccer field only for health benefits, something in her began to spark — her perspective of soccer changed. “I was completely wrong. Soccer turned out to be much more than what I expected,” she said.

Ramirez had so much fun on the field that she came back to more practices. Now not only was soccer helping Ramirez keep her stamina up, but it helped her make tons of new friends. She said, “Leaving my home was really hard, but when I joined the soccer team it made me feel accepted.” The friendships she has made is something she’s grateful for, “If it wasn’t for soccer, it would have been more difficult for me to get out of my comfort zone.

She also realized what it means to really be a team that supports each other. “It’s always good to try new things. If you never try them, you’ll never know if it’s cut out for you.”