Our Dream, Our Story....
Well, our story started just like you would expect, back in May 2001 we were born into this wonderful world. Amazingly, we came out wearing soccer cleats…LOL. Actually, that’s really not true. Our soccer history is not that of your typical competitive soccer player. We weren’t born with cleats on, we didn’t play soccer from the time we could run. Once we started playing, we didn’t play competitively, we didn’t grow up being trained by competitive coaches, nor did we play year around. In fact, you may be surprised when you find out just how long we’ve actually played competitive soccer. You see, when our parents had us they intentionally did not push us towards any sports. They did not sign us up for any sports, they didn’t even suggest to us to play a sport. Kinda odd considering that they both have been lifelong competitive athletes. They met in college while attending on volleyball scholarships. Sports was actually a major topic of discussion for them while we were “cooking” in our mom’s tummy. The decision was made that they felt it best to allow us to discover sports ourselves if we chose to, and let us fall in love with sports on our own. Mom and Dad wanted us to pick something that we would love and not do a sport because we were forced to. Being forced into playing a sport and growing up having to play a sport could burn kids out making the game a burden and our parents took that to heart. They allowed us to choose if and what we wanted to play, and we feel like that was very important in us developing our love of soccer. So, when we were young, while many of our friends were involved in playing 2 or 3 sports a year, dance classes, gymnastics, etc. we were busy playing and just doing fun kid stuff. We loved outdoors, we built forts, played in the mud, went swimming, rode bikes, etc. We were very active. When we were 3, our mom joined an indoor soccer team. We would love watching our mom play soccer with her co-ed team. She had so much fun and always came home with skinned knees and bruises. She was very, very aggressive and always fought for the ball. Some of her nature in soccer rubbed off on us and that is how we play today. This was the birth our soccer dream, watching Mommy running around on the field while we kicked the ball around on the sidelines. Growing up we played a lot of baseball and football and some soccer, but it was in our front yard. We also played football during recess at school with all the boys. We smoked them all the time and it was fun! Then when we were 8, we both decided we really wanted to play on a team, but it wasn’t going to be for the same team. In fact, not even in the same sport. Drew was dying to play soccer, and Samm was dying to play softball. Well, softball season was a ways off, and Soccer season had already started, actually it was probably too late to get on a soccer team. Our Mom checked out the local recreation league and they gave Drew permission to check out a team and see if the coach had room left for her. So the whole family went to the soccer practice to support Drew trying her first organized sport. Samm was going to have to wait a few months for softball season to start. As you can imagine, Drew instantly fell in love with soccer, and soccer loved her back. Here’s a pic from her first practice, look at that red sweaty face!
What was really interesting was that Samm was adamant that she was not interested in trying soccer with her sister, she was going to play softball! Funny thing happened though during Drew's second soccer practice, Drew was high on life enjoying her new love of soccer. Samm was in tears. What in the world was going on? That’s right, Samm just fell apart in tears while watching Drew run around kicking the ball. Our parents asked Samm what in the world was she so upset about. It took a bit for her to calm down enough to be able to get the life changing words out of her mouth, “I want to play soccer too with Drewey.” And so it we did just that, we played soccer together. In fact, Samm never did try softball after that day, soccer now resided in her heart too.
Our first coach was Tony Bertolino and our team was the Cheetah Girls, we were fierce and full of energy. That season during one of our games, the other team’s Coach kept yelling at his players “somebody has got to stop that blonde girl, she’s everywhere!” He was so upset. He thought there was only one of us and couldn’t believe how fast we were. Little did he know that Tony’s secret weapons were his two sets of twins. It was hilarious when his assistant coach told him, “that blonde girl is everywhere because there’s 2 of them.” Tony played us as center defenders because we were the most aggressive and we stopped everyone from getting past us, but we also really liked scoring goals. It was an awesome experience that season, we’ll never forget that soccer team or Coach Tony.
....and so the dream was born....
Next year we played for another team call the Stingrays. Part way through the season, we were riding our unbeaten streak. On the way home from our most recent wins we told our parents that our team was “undefeatable” because we hadn’t lost any games yet. Our parents just started laughing and so we wondered what was so funny. They told us, “you mean undefeated, you haven’t lost yet.” So we answered them matter of factly, “yep, that’s what we said....we’re undefeatable.”
To this day they give us a hard time about that one...LOL. We went “undefeatable” that whole season finishing 10-0. We learned lots of new skills and our knowledge of soccer also grew. This was the year we also watched the US Women’s National Team play on T.V. in the 2010 Olympics. This really lit a fire in our hearts. We knew we loved soccer, and we knew we wanted to play it “forever”. Now we saw these grown up women playing soccer on Television, wearing the Red White and Blue, representing our Country, representing us in the OLYMPICS!!! That’s what we wanna do!
Each of our first 2 seasons we were starters in the All Star games representing our entire soccer club. Competition coaches approached our parents trying to recruit us to Competitive programs. “This is the path your girls need to take if they want to move forward with soccer and they’re too good to just keep playing in the recreational program.” Our parents just didn’t want to see us “lose our childhood” to a sport requiring so much of our time and risk “burning us out”. They told us they wanted us to wait until we were older before we dedicate that much time and effort to a sport....so we waited.
For our third, and fifth year of soccer our dad coached our rec team, the Fury. The year in between we played for Jen. After that fifth year of rec soccer we wanted more competition and we still wanted to make a career out of soccer. There was no competitive team for our age group, so our dad decided to coach our very first comp team the Avengers. On the Avengers we both played center mids side by side. One of us was attacking and the other defensive, though it wasn't really set in stone which one of us played where. We were always switching it around during games. That year was the first time we played in a tournament. Let’s just say that playing in a tournament with only 13 players is hard. And not only did we have only 13, but we got two injuries during the first game so we played with no subs. Then, during the second game our team suffered another injury and we finished that game with only 10 players. The next day of our tournament was brutal. We played with no subs again for game 3 but the last game of the tournament was the hardest challenge. We had 3 players sitting out, so we only fielded 10 players while the opposing team played with 5 subs. When second half came around we put one of our injured players in at keeper and moved our keeper onto the field. That tournament was a great experience and not a letdown in the least. We came together as a team instead of breaking apart and we showed our hearts for the game which we love so much. We left everything out on the field and our coach couldn’t have been more proud. Our last year of comp was in 2015. Our team beat everyone except for the prospector team who was our major rivals. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the competition we needed to play with and against. Our parents promised us that as we got older, if our love for soccer continued to grow that they would support us playing at a higher level of competition. Well, it was time for us to choose a direction. We weren’t little kids anymore, and if we wanted to pursue soccer, if it was really a dream to play in college and beyond, then it was time to make that commitment. This was no small decision to make because it would require a big change in our lives. We had no idea what to do, but we knew everything about soccer was about to change once that season ended.
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The conclusion of that 2015 comp season led to the beginning of our first year of high school soccer. We had met the varsity soccer coach the year before while we were still 8th graders when we would visit the Varsity practices and games. During our last comp season, he came and watched some of our games. He told our Dad he saw a lot of talent and was so impressed with our aggressive, driven soccer play and wanted us to tryout for the varsity team as freshmen the coming season. This caught us by surprise, and although we were nervous, it was encouraging to know that we were being “seen”. We made it thru tryouts making the High School Varsity Soccer team. Samm played as his first freshman sweeper he’s ever had, while Drew played attacking center mid, both starters leading the team with the most minutes played for the season. We helped lead our varsity team to the playoffs, and the last time that happened was 10 years ago. At the end of the 2016 High School season we both were chosen as All-League Players for our SVC Conference and we received our Varsity Letter. In addition, Drew was honored with the Team’s Offensive Player of the Year award, and Samm received Defensive Player of the Year. Drew was the leading scorer for our team while Samm “held down the fort” running our defense and led the team in steals.
Now if you remember, once our 2015 comp season ended we were left wondering what to do next to pursue our soccer dream. We knew it was time to make major change, but we just didn’t know where to go. Mom and Dad knew it was time for us dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of our dream and they wanted to support that, but they just didn’t know what to do either. As our Dad tells it, out of desperation one day in January 2016 he texted his friend Tony Bertolino and asked for help. Remember Tony, our very first coach?
Tony and his family had become good friends over the years. So, Dad texted Tony and told him that we needed a new soccer club to try out for. That we were officially pursing a College Soccer Scholarship and a career in soccer and we needed a higher level of training and competition. We had been playing the past few seasons with great friends and with our Dad as our coach. To be perfectly honest, we were in tears the day we made the decision to pursue a new team and training, knowing that we would have to say goodbye to playing with all these girls we came to love so much, and to say goodbye to Dad coaching us. He knew it was time for us to play for a better coach, and although he worked hard to coach us, he was right. Tony immediately responded that his daughter Lexie was playing the past year for a club in El Dorado Hills and that their ’01 girls team might be interested in us. He gave Dad the club President’s phone number and told Dad to give him a call. Before our Dad had a chance to call, the club president called him. Long story short, they were interested in us and wanted us to come to a training session that week. Wow, you gotta be kidding right? Our Dad told us he actually teared up when he got the invite. So we went to a training session and then they asked us to play in an indoor game at the end of the week which we gladly did. After the indoor game was over, the coach said he wants to officially offer us a spot on the team! He asked us to go home and talk it over with our parents and let him know what our decision was. We did as he instructed. Mom and Dad and both of us felt a complete peace about this move along with great anticipation. There was an unexplainable sense that something big was happening, but we just didn’t know what it was. Obviously, we accepted the offer and became a part of the USA STARS.
Now we gotta share a few very interesting details about this, please be patient because it will be worth it. We know if you’ve read this far than you’ve already read a lot, but this is pretty crazy if you ask us....First, don’t you find it a bit peculiar that when we needed direction for a new team, when we had no idea where to start, we got that direction from Tony our very first coach we ever had? AND, this was the very first attempt our Dad made to find us a new soccer team. Second, why would this coach be interested in us? You have to be honest and realistic about this now....all we have ever played is very low recreation level soccer and a little competitive soccer, the lowest level of comp soccer that exists. The STARS are made up of girls who have played at the highest level of competitive soccer there is for years. In fact, did we mention that the STARS had won back to back State Championships? Or that they were ranked in the top 10 in the United States? This team is FOR REAL! And, if we add up all the games we had played in our entire soccer careers, it comes to a total of 74 games of soccer – that’s 74 games of soccer at the lowest level of competition mind you. The girls on the STARS play 74 games per year, and at the highest level of competition. But Coach AJ immediately offers us a spot? WOW!!! Third, and this one is very, very “coincidental”. US Soccer has required all youth soccer this year to change from the what was the current age registration mandates to the new age mandates. Let us explain: Player eligibility is age based and teams are formed according to age. All previous years the age mandates were based on date ranges similar to when the School year started, i.e. Fall 2001 to Fall 2002. As of the middle of 2016, US Youth Soccer was to be implementing the US Soccer Federation’s age mandates which meant that all teams would be reorganized based on the calendar year of birth. For example, we were born in 2001, so we would now play in the ’01 age group which is also called the Under 16 (U16) group. Here’s the coincidence, the STARS we set to be a U15 team this year under the old age mandate in which we would be too old, but because of the new mandate they were reorganized into the U16 age group. If we had made the decision last year to look for a new team, we would not have been age eligible because we were born a couple months to early. But because we needed a new team this year, and this year the STARS U15 team was reorganized into a U16 team, we are eligible to play for them. Just a coincidence right?!!? You can call it anything you like, but we honestly believe that God has a plan for our lives, and this is part of His plan. Remember earlier when we said we had an unexplainable sense that something big was happening. Well, this has certainly been unexplainable, and talk about a BIG opportunity we now find ourselves smack dab in the middle of!
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So now we are both STARS, and we love it. What an incredible challenge this process has been transitioning to this new club. It’s so exciting to now play for a team that has the same goals and dreams as we do. Like we stated earlier, our STARS team is currently ranked #2 in the country. Again, what a blessed opportunity we find ourselves faced with. We are driven to earn College Soccer Scholarships and to play beyond college. In fact, shortly after we first watched the US Women’s National Team in the 2010 Olympics (in which they did not win by the way), we watched a special called the 99ers. This was a special production documenting the 1999 World Cup which was the last time the US Women’s team won. This ’99 team was beyond special, beyond a legendary soccer team. They were more than
just a team, they inspired so many people on such a grand scale. It’s so difficult to adequately explain so instead we included a link to the special. If you want to see what it is we want to accomplish someday, what it is that we desire to experience, what soccer is to us, watch this special....
Watch the Documentary
click to read the ESPN article
This is when the dream of being the first twins to play for the US Women’s National team was cemented in our hearts. Can we possibly do something that’s never been done before?
It’s a big dream. No, it’s an enormous, ridiculously humongous dream....but dreams do come true. For us to have a shot at college scholarships, we need to work incredibly hard, develop our soccer skills, develop our athletic physiques, have a high GPA, but we ALSO have to get noticed and that can be very difficult, especially considering where we live. BUT, we just found ourselves a part of this amazing club, ranked #2 in the U.S., already on the national stage, legitimately competing for a National Championship, already on Division 1 College coach’s radars. WOW again! WOW, WOW, WOW! Just another coincidence huh?
We’ve played in 5 tournaments this summer, winning 4 out of 5, going undefeated (or maybe we should say "undefeatable"...LOL) in the 4 tournaments we won. We mentioned in the beginning that our team qualified for the 2016/17 US Youth Soccer National League. This is so huge. We travel to North Carolina and to Las Vegas for these games. If we win our group, we are automatically qualified for the National Championship tournament again. Just prior to us being age eligible to play in games this summer, our team finished 3rd in the 2016 National Championship. We have a legitimate shot at winning a National Championship this coming season. We just gotta work hard and go do it!!!
Watch out U.S. National League....cuz here we come!!!
Although we are blessed beyond belief to have the opportunities we have in front of us, nothing will be given. We have to earn it, every step of the way. So here’s what it’s going to take, 3 years of hard work, dedication and discipline, commitment to our schooling, proper time management, patience, and a never back down attitude. All of that is our responsibility and ours alone. What we are asking for from you is your support. Moral support, please be our fans, cheer us on, pray for us, send us encouraging notes, share with us your triumphs, and share our story with others. And, as with most things in life, all these amazing opportunities cost money. We need financial support from anyone who can. We’d like to share with you the level of commitment to hard work we have made. We practice 2 times a week with our STARS team and play league games and tournaments on weekends. In addition to STARS practice, we go to school early Tuesday thru Friday for our own additional skills training. When we don’t have a tournament weekend, we also skills train for 3 hrs each Sunday. We weight train 2-3 days a week to develop our soccer physiques, strengthen our cores and joints to prevent injury. We are now adding one additional training session per week with a skills coach. This coming year we are also planning on attending 2 or 3 College ID camps to work with a few of the top college soccer coaches. In addition to all the work we are dedicating to developing our soccer game, we are 100% committed to our academics. We finished our freshmen year with a 4.0 GPA and a 3.8 GPA. We will graduate with minimum of 3.5 GPA which helps us be more desirable to colleges when they look at giving out scholarships. In the middle of all this hard work we still find time to enjoy being teenagers, spending time with family and friends, and just being Samm and Drew. We don’t have the time to do everything some of our friends do, but we’re quite fine sacrificing some activities for the opportunity to walk out our dream. We sacrifice some things now so that we can one day experience something amazing in which few people ever do.
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Lastly, to address our needs in regards to our financial obligations. Here’s a quick rundown of what our joint costs are for the next 3 years: team fees monthly $370, tournament fees annually $4000, skills coach monthly $200, and then there’s a couple special unplanned events like the US National league in North Carolina ($3000 estimated) and Las Vegas ($1500 estimated) which are additional costs. All this seems expensive, and although it’s a big chunk of cash, honestly our club is much less expensive than the other elite competitive teams we compete against. Our club is really good about keeping costs down as low as is possible. We don’t spend any money on non-essential stuff like many clubs do. We just train hard, play hard, and that’s all we spend money on.
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Our family is not in the financial situation to handle all these new expenses. Mom and Dad are doing everything they can, but it’s time to ask for assistance so we’re asking. We’ve started an online fundraising program which shows the total annual financial obligation for our 3 years leading to college, minus the special National League events. If you choose to give financially, you can either do it here online or you can always send checks in the mail. Every bit of support makes a difference!
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We have 3 years to go and counting to get to college, we’re gonna give the next 3 years EVERYTHING we have, and we’re gonna live our dream! Please support us in any way you can along our journey, follow our story, share your stories with us, cheer for us, encourage us, pray for us, believe in us....Our Story is to be continued....