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The responsibility to pay it forward continues to drive Becky Sauerbrunn. Soccer to her is one big, welcoming, growing community. Now it’s her turn to make sure today’s players are afforded the same opportunities that benefited her.
“I take a lot of pride in making sure those girls know how much we appreciate what they’re doing,” Becky said. “We were them at one point.”
Don’t expect that Becky’s final contribution to the sport she loves will be made in a courtroom. More than likely, it will be made out on the field, where her focus remains, as always, to become a better player tomorrow than she is today.
Even in the final few months spent preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil—and then after the Rio Games, during which Team USA shockingly was eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinal round—Becky knew there remained room for her to grow and improve. She’d seen glimpses of how good she believes she can be (she was, after all, a finalist for the 2016 US Soccer Female Player of the Year award). She knew she was not there yet. But she knows what it takes to get there.
“None of us would have made it without people who supported us and believed in us,” Becky said. “That’s the message: self-belief. Who knows where that belief can take you?”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gathering stories and experiences from Becky Sauerbrunn’s childhood and soccer career would not have been possible without her willing participation in this project. I am grateful to Becky for her generosity with her time, for her candor, and for her cooperation. I also want to thank Becky’s family, who shared their time and memories with me—her parents, Jane and Scott, and her brothers, Grant and Adam. Thank you to two of her longtime coaches, who took the time to talk about one of their favorite subjects: Tim Boul of J. B. Marine and Steve Swanson. Their time with Becky ranged from the ODP national team to the University of Virginia and all the way up to the US Women’s National Team. I thank Aaron Heifetz, the US Women’s National Team press officer for US Soccer, who helped get the ball rolling on this story.
Finally, many thanks go out to Rick Richter at Aevitas Creative Management and to Fiona Simpson and Mara Anastas and their talented team at Simon & Schuster for their belief in and support for the Real Sports series from the start.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph by Jill Rhodes
David Seigerman’s love of sports was kindled on the ball fields of his Long Island childhood, then fanned while rooting for the Mets, Jets, and Rangers through some historically bad seasons in the 1970s and 1980s. Upon realizing that his best path to the big leagues would be not with a bat but with a pen, he graduated from Ithaca College a million years ago and began a career as a sports journalist. He has been thrilled by the privilege of covering games and telling stories about athletes across all levels of all sports—including that 1999 Women’s World Cup team that captivated a young Becky Sauerbrunn’s attention (specifically, its 3–0 tournament-opening win over Denmark at Giants Stadium and the 3–2 quarterfinal victory over Germany in Landover, Maryland)—for pretty much every storytelling medium there is: newspapers, magazines, television, radio, digital, documentaries, and books. Prior to the Real Sports series, David coauthored several books, including Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look and Quarterback: The Toughest Job in Pro Sports (both with Pat Kirwan), and Under Pressure: How Playing Football Almost Cost Me Everything and Why I’d Do It All Again (with Ray Lucas). Aside from a goal scored in a beginners’ men’s ice-hockey league (February 7, 2013) and an honest-to-goodness hole in one ( June 5, 2015—with witnesses), his most treasured sports moments have come from coaching and watching his daughter and son on the ball fields and skating rinks of their own Westchester County childhoods.
ALADDIN
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First Aladdin paperback edition November 2017
Text copyright © 2017 by Real Content Media Group
Cover photograph copyright © 2017 by Geoff Robins & Adam Pretty/Getty Images
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Book designed by Greg Stadnyk
Jacket designed by Greg Stadnyk
Action photograph copyright © 2017 by Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images
Headshot photograph © 2017 Adam Pretty/FIFA via Getty Images
Texture photographs (burst, soccerball, field) © 2017 by Thinkstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Seigerman, David, author. Title: Becky Sauerbrunn / By David Seigerman.
Description: New York : Aladdin, 2017. | Series: Real Sports Content Network Presents | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Age 8-12.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002960 (print) | LCCN 2017012275 (eBook) |
ISBN 9781481482189 (eBook) | ISBN 9781481482172 (hc) | ISBN 9781481482165 (pbk)
Subjects: LCSH: Sauerbrunn, Becky, 1985—Juvenile literature. | Women soccer players—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. | Soccer players—United States—
Biography—Juvenile literature. | Women Olympic athletes—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography /
Sports & Recreation. | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Sports & Recreation / Basketball.
Classification: LCC GV942.7.S278 (eBook) | LCC GV942.7.S278 S45 2017 (print) |
DDC 796.334092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002960
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