FC Samoa

by Hannah Garrett

When deciding what college to go to academics came first for me. I had known that I wanted to be a graphic designer for the past couple of years and Cal Poly has a very strong art and design program. To get in I had to have a GPA that met the schools standards, as well as submit a portfolio. My GPA was 3.9 which got me through the academic cut. To create my portfolio I was able to draw on work that I had created throughout high school. However, I also had to create an assigned piece. For this, I made a book cover for a fictional book that was about banned books. This process was very intense, but was worth it as I got in!

While I was looking at schools I always checked out soccer but that was never the defining feature in a school for me. I decided to try out for the Cal Poly team probably a month after I got accepted. I figured I might as well keep my options open and see if I could really connect with the soccer program and if I was good enough to play. Cal Poly has a NCAA D1 Soccer Program. The main difference between D3, D2 and D1 is the level of competition. The athletes who choose to partake in D1 programs are expecting to encounter much more rigorous training and a lot more commitment.

by Sazi Bhakti

I have been playing soccer since I was five and when I began to make the decision of where I was going to spend four years of my college life I wanted soccer to be apart of that decision. After a few months of research and contacting college coaches I received a letter from a man in New York who was looking for a motivated striker. After a few more emails back and forth between us, I was given the opportunity to fly thousands of miles for a tryout, expense paid for. I remember the feeling of excitement and nerves. Eight months before I stepped on the plain I was in surgery from a torn ACL, LCL, MCL and meniscus in my knee. It had taken me six months just to be able to step back on the field and than I had two months to get myself into top shape for a tryout that might decide where I was going to live for the next four years. The tryout ended up being at night in an indoor court. The group of us were divided into four teams. Two teams played each other while the other two stood on the side lines. The game was sudden death and if your team won you would stay on the court and play the next team up. Instead of worrying about every mistake I made on the field I decided to just have fun. I was playing the game that I loved and I was being paid to fly out and play it, there couldn't be anything better than that. Going into the  tryout with that kind of a mentality is exactly what made it so successful. Every touch I made felt so smooth and fluid and almost every single one of my finishes resulted in a goal. After three hours I felt on top of the world and still ready for more. At the end of my three day visit of the campus I was rewarded with 100,000 dollars in scholarship and a spot on the team. This all just proves to show that it doesn't matter the size of town that you grow up in, what matters is how badly you want it.