Alyssa Jackson is a sophomore at Badin, a JV soccer player and she is on a select club team as well.

Her journey with soccer started when she was young, and is probably relatable to most young soccer players.

“I’ve been playing soccer for around 12 years now so I started playing when I was really young around the age of three or four. My parents decided to put me on a small team of other small kids in the fall and surprisingly when I was that age I used to be so afraid of the ball. Anytime I touched the ball or got close to it my parents would celebrate me touching the ball when we got home. I guess that kind of fueled me to keep going because when my dad asked if I wanted to play soccer or another sport I always said soccer,” Jackson said.

Soccer is a very hard sport and it takes a lot of perseverance to pursue it. Growing up, Jacksons’ dad is what motivated her to be her best.

“I joined what is called select soccer a little late probably around the age of nine. I joined a small club called Fairfield Impact with my sister and at the time they didn’t have a younger team for my age group. But because I still wanted to play they put me on a team twp age divisions up and I played with my sister. Because I was so young (probably the youngest on the team) and because I was new to the club I got discouraged a lot in myself and I felt like I couldn't catch up with the older girls. They could already do so much like kick the ball way farther than I could. So when my dad became the coach we would stay after practices sometimes and he taught me how to get better and I kept trying and trying until I was finally at the same level as the rest of the girls on my team. I eventually got good enough to where I became a starter on my team. I have been playing two age divisions up since. I was able to play in my own age division around probably two to three years ago” Jackson said.

One of Jacksons’ favorite memories that she mentioned was a few years ago at a tournament when she led her team to victory.

“One of my favorite memories from soccer I would say was when I had one of the best assists ever. This was a few years ago when I was on my recent club team that I'm on now. We were at a college showcase in Kentucky and I got brave enough to take the ball up down the side of the field from my outside defensive position. I carried it up and I ended up making an amazing cross because I hit it low enough into the crowd of people by the goal to where you couldn’t really see the ball until it was in front of the goal. I crossed it in and my other teammate scored the goal. It was such an amazing feeling when I was running back and all my teammates were congratulating me,” Jackson said.

Jackson believes that there is always room for improvement which is one of the things she is looking forward to for this upcoming season!

“For the upcoming spring and high school seasons I'm mostly looking forward to improvement. I can always use some improvement in my playing skills and I look forward to my coaches helping me out with that,” Jackson said.