“Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.”

Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.

These past two years have been a whirlwind. Looking back on where the women’s game overall not in regards to one sport has changed is absolutely amazing, but it’s one small step to a large victory.

This whole journey for every female athlete and coach ranges from actually playing and growing as an athlete, to coaching as well. There’s so much doubt that gets put on us by others and even ourselves , but looking at what this year has held in the women’s game really shows that change is incoming.

I’ve seen it first hand in my career – being one of the first females to enter the infantry and play soccer to now my career coming to a close and stepping out to pursue coaching. Not because I can’t or don’t want to play soccer anymore, but because my mindset has taken a different direction now. So many coaches have been there for me and helped develop me as a player and human, We all want to be part of that for the next wave of athletes to come. I see where I dropped the ball as a teammate and where i let my coaches down as a leader. Being able to say yea ok I did this wrong but I have these experiences is good, it means we can use those to help the next wave of players be better than we were. That continues our victory , it makes everything worth it because we get to see these athletes grow into something better than we were and strive for greatness.

Author: Claudia Castillo played college soccer at Columbia international university along with track (steeple chase).  She has also played for army unit team and coaches at Berkshire soccer academy.