Opportunity knocks for former Aztec soccer player
FRUITLAND
When she was a kid, just before every soccer game, Emily McDonald would sit down so her mother could braid her hair into two pigtails.
She would put on her jersey and slide on her cleats. It was those little things about playing soccer that McDonald enjoyed so much.
“It was just really exciting. I just remember being super ready; ready for all the opportunities that were going to come to me,” McDonald said. “It was just something fun for me. I don’t think it got old because my family made it fun for me.”
For nearly 14 years of her life, McDonald, now 18, says her soccer games became a family norm. She couldn’t imagine life without soccer and when she finished her senior at Aztec High School, she didn’t have to.
McDonald, who is half Navajo, was given the opportunity to play soccer at the college level. Trinidad State Junior College (2-2) offered her a scholarship to play women’s soccer. She is now in her first season with the Trojans in Trinidad, Colo.
“I was just excited and it’s something I really, really love and I can never imagine giving soccer up for anything,” she said.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow