Double Jersey—Soccer and Life

Double Jersey—Soccer and Life

Written By: Megan Sones of Chasing Kids in Heels

An Inspirational Interview with Rachel Breton

If you ask elementary students what they want to be when they grow up, one of the most popular answers is a professional athlete. Rachel Breton was able to make that dream a reality. The craziest part? That was NOT her anticipated dream! Soccer has taught Rachel, and countless other girls, life lessons that they take far beyond the field once their jerseys have been retired.
Rachel grew up surrounded by soccer, it was literally in her blood as her father played professionally for a few years. Even as a young girl, Rachel demonstrated supreme ball skills, speed, agility, and passion, which opened many doors for her throughout the years. For Rachel, soccer was an outlet and an experience that allowed her to connect with other people. She was afforded the opportunity to play for the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP) during her high school years, traveling abroad to Russia, Wales, England, and Brazil with her teammates. However, her dreams only extended through college where she wished to play at a Division I school.
The college recruiting process was unlike anything that Rachel had experienced, and something that she felt totally unprepared for. “I felt like I was speed dating”- recruiters proposed offers and used terms like jurisdiction, FCC, and divisions that were foreign to both Rachel and her parents. The process was extremely overwhelming and nothing could have helped prepare her for this experience. At this point, it was all about the recruiters. Their goal was to woo Rachel to join their school. Looking back, Rachel explained that if she were to repeat the process today, her values would have been altered, placing a greater focus on the campus’ overall athletic funding and support, especially that of the football team, which affects the status of the athletic weight room and training facilities. The biggest piece of advice she has on the process - “You have to find a team that fits you, you can’t make yourself fit into them. You have to do your homework: you need to love the campus, love the school, and feel like you’re at home.”
Without this key advice, Rachel landed at Villanova with a full ride, which was not the ideal fit for her. She played for two years, but changes in the coaching staff and the team led her to seek alternative options. Rachel elected to transfer closer to home and to a larger school, where she would pursue her degree in Psychology and English at Rutgers University, with no intent to play soccer, but fate had other plans and Rachel finished her additional two years of college eligibility as a Scarlet Knight.
Playing soccer in general, but especially at the collegiate level encompasses so many life lessons. It makes you think “How do you deal with adversity? How do you adapt? I started out as a Biochemical Engineering major. You’re not a student-athlete, you’re an athlete-student. You have to fit your classes around your weight room and practice schedule. I wanted to be a social butterfly. For me, that mattered.” Soccer helped Rachel establish a set of guidelines and expectations within herself that may have otherwise gone untapped. She also explained the strong connections with teammates both on and off the field and how those relationships have lasted over the years, creating a larger personal social network. “At the end of the day, no one can say that I’m a bad person. If you need me at 4 o’clock in the morning, I’ll be there for you. I have friends and connections that I’ve made throughout the years, girls that are in Australia, England, and all over.”
Soccer and fate again took their course after Rachel graduated from Rutgers in May 2012. Like many new graduates, Rachel was trying to find her path, and the Womens’ Professional Soccer (WPS) league had recently folded so there was no draft. In January 2013, a new league- the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) pulled together open tryouts, giving Rachel only a few months to get her training and footwork audition ready. She made the league and joined Sky Blue FC. “It was the first time that I got in my own head. All the false confidence that I had, it wrecked me.” Rachel recounted this as the reason for her subpar performance in the first year of her professional career. She continued to play professionally, moving to Norway in 2015 to play for Amazon Grimstad FK.
Professional sports, especially for females, are more glamorized than they truly are. When Rachel started playing professionally, she was making only $6000 a year, compared to the men’s league minimum $55,000 salary. When asked about the greatest challenge of being a female in a male dominated industry, Rachel simply responded “Respect.” Salary is only one feat in the gender discrepancy in sports. There are vastly more opportunities for males to play soccer than women, forcing some women to give up on their dreams of playing.
Reflecting on the events of her college and professional career, Rachel commented that things did not go as expected, but given the opportunity, there is nothing that she would change. “Soccer has taught me life and how limitless we can be. Through soccer you discover love and pain, teamwork and sacrifice, upsets and highs.” These lessons can all be translated into life itself. Rachel referred to herself as the self-coined “yes-girl”, first accepting a challenge, then figuring out how to make it come to fruition. This mentality proved effective in leading Rachel to new and unknown opportunities including becoming a Videographer for Major League Soccer and working at AP2T in New Jersey, training future Olympians and strong athletes.
Today, Rachel is focusing on finding her niche, incorporating all of the passion and life experience that she has acquired from soccer, as well as her background and certifications in psychology. For Rachel, the most important thing for athletes to recognize is the mental component of the game, as well as life. “My goal is that you know all of the tools that you have in your toolbox. Soccer taught me love and hate, it taught me disdain, it taught me perspective. All things you don’t hear in books or in school. In a 90 minute game, you learn so much about yourself and about others.”
Athletics, specifically soccer, gives females the opportunity to cultivate and demonstrate qualities within themselves that they didn’t even realize that they possessed. Females have more grit and determination than they often believe - soccer can be the outlet for bringing those strong qualities to the surface. As Rachel said, “That’s why people love hiring female athletes, we have the unmatched— ‘just tell me what to do and I’ll get it done’ mentality.” Ladies, let’s get ready to take on the world!
You can follow along with Rachel’s journey on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube @RachieBret
or via her website https://www.rachelbreton.com
**All photos courtesy of Rachel Breton**