by Alex Morgan
My second year in AYSO, when I was six years old. This was taken at Chaparral Middle School, across the street from my house.
With my sisters, Jenny (left) and Jeri (right), on Valentine’s Day, 1997.
Celebrating with my teammate and friend Audrey after winning an AYSO game when I was seven.
Breaking away and going for the goal during an AYSO game when I was nine.
My AYSO team won the league championship when I was nine, and Mom was there to congratulate me with flowers.
With my teammates from the Diamond Heights softball league after a big win. That’s me on the lower left at age ten.
My middle name is Patricia, after my aunt Patty, who’s also my godmother. Aunt Patty came to watch me perform in my middle school’s Christmas choir performance when I was eleven.
All speed as I dribbled the ball down the field when I was eleven. Two years later I’d start playing on a club team.
When I was in middle school, I also ran track. Here’s me with my friends Tasha, Colleen, and Krista (left to right) at the San Antonio College relay races.
My coaches Eduardo (left) and Sal (right) taught me so much when I played for Cypress Elite. I’m the one wearing flip flops on the bottom row, happy as could be because we’d just won an Under-16 tournament.
Freshman year at Diamond Bar High School, my first year on the varsity team.
Playing for the Diamond Bar varsity team my junior year. Yes, I decided to go blond!
Mom and Dad came to watch me scrimmage during one of my first training camps with the US Women’s National Team. We’re at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, not far from where I grew up.
I love my fans! I’m reading from my book series, the Kicks, here, and some of these amazing girls were reading along with me.
Few things make me happier than working with kids. Here I am at a soccer clinic in Houston, Texas, in October 2014.
My wedding was one of the happiest days of my life. Servando and I got married in Santa Barbara on New Year’s Eve, 2014.
Afterword
* * *
I struggled a lot with the right way to end this book. I never expected to be writing something about my life when I’m only twenty-five and so much is just beginning. So an ending? It feels odd. There’s really no wrap-up to my story, and in many ways, I’ll always be writing it!
The same is true for you. Your life will constantly be evolving and changing, and every day will likely be different. Each time the sun comes up you have a new opportunity to work toward making your dreams come true, and even when you say good-bye to something (like a friend who’s moving or a school year), you’re going to begin something else (you’ll meet a new friend or start a new year).
I don’t profess to be an authority on much except for soccer, but I do know that hard work pays off, teamwork can make anything easier, and thinking positively will make you happier. I’ve learned most of this on the soccer field, but you may learn it at school, over the dinner table, while taking a test, or on a long hike up a mountain. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy every second of the work that goes into making your dreams come true. Achieving a goal is a beautiful thing, but it won’t happen unless you stop and plot out what your dreams are, then work like crazy to make them come true. And believe me, you can do it!
Servando and I celebrated our wedding on December 31, 2014. Getting married on New Year’s felt so right for us—much like one year ending and another beginning, we were closing out a chapter of our lives and starting a new one. As I said to the press, “I truly married my best friend,” and I was so lucky I got to do it in front of my teammates, my family, and friends I’d known since I was a little girl. As people counted down the seconds till the clock struck midnight, I don’t remember much except feeling happy, loved, and supremely grateful. I’ve had such a blessed life.
But I’ve worked for it, and I’ve had ups and downs and setbacks that, at times, I thought were permanent. What’s pushed me through all the rough patches in my personal and professional lives was the belief that something better is always in front of me. Never, ever stop thinking this—you can work to make your life fuller and richer each day.
By the time you read this, the 2015 World Cup may be under way, or it may be long over. I can guarantee you one thing: No matter where we are, my teammates and I are living out our dreams on the soccer field. We love what we’re doing in part because we believe in one another, we practice with our goals in mind, and we know we can always keep improving.
I hope you embrace the opportunity to do the same.
Dream big. Love life. And never stop pursuing your goals.
—Alex Morgan, January 2015
About Alex Morgan
* * *
PHOTO BY M. STAHLSCHMIDT/SSP © 2015
ALEX MORGAN became the youngest member of the US Women’s National Team in 2009 and competed in the 2011 FIFA World Cup. She was the first overall pick in the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer draft and landed a spot on the US Olympic women’s soccer team in 2012. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, held in London, Morgan won her first Olympic medal, a gold, with the American team. The team beat Japan, 2–1, in a match watched live by nearly 80,300 fans—the largest soccer crowd in Olympics history. She now plays for the Portland Thorns FC of Portland, Oregon.
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Also by Alex Morgan
The Kicks
Saving the Team
Sabotage Season
Win or Lose
Hat Trick
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Copyright © 2015 by Alex Morgan
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Jacket design by Krista Vossen
Interior design by Hilary Zarycky
Jacket photographs copyright © 2015 by Brian Kuhlmann
The text for this book is set in Berling.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morgan, Alex (Alexandra Patricia), 1989–
Breakaway / Alex Morgan. — First edition hardcover.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4814-5107-9 (Hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4814-5109-3 (Ebook) 1. Morgan, Alex (Alexandra Patricia), 1989– 2. Women soccer players—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
GV942.7.M673A3 2015
796.334092—dc23
[B]
2015004127