Kayleigh Strauss '18 Recruiting Profile

As a person, I have grown up faster than a lot of other people my age. When I was 10 years old my mom was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. My little sister was born with a heart murmur and other heart defects. Being my only siblings, I have been with them since the day they were born. As they have grown up, my sister has had multiple open heart surgeries and had to have a heart transplant when she was 8 months old. Over the past few years I have had to help with them as much as possible, watching them and help take care of them. Because of this I feel like I am a bit more mature than others my age and have learned though the process how valuable life can be. My sister makes me a stronger person just knowing what she has been though and how hard she has had to fight to live.

As I grow up, my love for soccer has grown with me. I have always said that I was going to go to college and play soccer and nothing has changed. This year, I have kept up good grades, and have A's. I have had a 3.5 GPA throughout my high school years. I have taken honors classes and am now taking college prep classes in my junior year.

I have played soccer since I was 3 years old, and I have played club soccer since I was 7 years old. Throughout my soccer years, I have been all over the field in different positions. For most of my life I have played offensive positions such as forward and attacking midfielder.  Up until the last few years I have never played defense, but the last few years I have. Due to low numbers on my club team a few years ago, I played defense for more than half of the season. My coach pulled me from offense to defense, because he said I am a very strong athlete and all good athletes don't have one position. I have been successful playing defense and can play anywhere that is needed on my club or high school team.

On my current teams I take mostly all of the free kicks, corner kicks, and PK's when needed. I feel comfortable taking shots from distance, and I am comfortable taking the ball up the field one on one. As a player, as long as I can play soccer I won't complain about where I am playing. I just love the game, and nothing is going to stop that.