Sierra Velong is a Sophomore a part of the soccer team here at Santaluces High School. Sierra has been playing since she was seven, and has now become a very skillful player. She is now in her second year on the Girls’ Varsity Team. She is very focused on her academics and her games.

On the team, Sierra is right-wing. She makes attacking runs and passes accurate passes to the forwards. As opposed to overlapping, she creates chances and opportunities for the advancing forwards. Sierra became interested in soccer when she was a little girl because she saw a soccer game on TV. She saw how fast and accurate you had to be and it really interested her to start playing.

“The team aspect of it has always furthered my interest because it was so interesting; how 11 people could come together so quickly,” she said.

Not only does Sierra play for Santaluces High school, but she also plays for a travel team. She is an incredible player and it shows with her accomplishments. She has been the captain for five years and is continuing to be; not only that, but she also made it to the quarter-finals of state.

“It’s really hard imagining school and soccer when you have a lot of AICE and AP classes because you have a lot of homework, so you have to go home and do your homework, and then straight to practice so you don’t really have any free time,” Sierra said.

At school, it’s hard to manage games and homework. However, Sierra has handled it very well and is even number one in her class. She takes challenging classes such as AICE Marine, AP Psychology, AICE International History, and AICE English Language.

Velong plans on continuing with soccer during college. Her dream school is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. If the opportunity for her arises to play professionally, she would love to play and continue her soccer career.

Another one of her plans is to be a sports psychologist and work with athletes and teach them skills to manage their mental health.