USWNT star Naomi Girma’s journey to finding her place in the beautiful game
USWNT star Naomi Girma chats with Yahoo Sports senior soccer reporter Henry Bushnell about finding her way as a defender and the obstacles facing kids as they work their way up in the sport.
Video Transcript
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HENRY BUSHNELL: How and when and why did you become a defender?
NAOMI GIRMA: I feel like I've always like felt comfortable defending as I was playing in the midfield. And I kept playing in the midfield throughout my high school club. And I think it helped me, I think, just getting on the ball a lot. And then when I went to Stanford, I feel like that's when I was really like, OK, I'm playing defense.
HENRY BUSHNELL: We've talked about how, like-- you say it all the time that your success wouldn't be possible without help from, obviously, your family, but also people around you-- community, other people you came across in soccer. Are there any specific lessons that we as a soccer community can draw to make soccer more inclusive for a lot of these kids?
NAOMI GIRMA: I think people underestimate how challenging it is to get rides when both your parents work full-time, and training's at, like, 3:00 or 4:00 PM. And I think at least from us, or from my parents, it was like being willing to ask, because I think sometimes, people don't even want to ask for help and feel embarrassed or whatever it is. And I just think it's so worth it for the kids just to be able to like experience youth sports. Even if you're not that good, it doesn't matter. I think it's just that camaraderie and just all the lessons you take from there, and then also just being willing to lend a helping hand if you can.
And yeah, I don't think people helped me because they thought I would play for the national team. They just helped me because I just wanted to play. And I was just a kid who couldn't really do anything to change the situation. So yeah, I think in my situation, that was the most important thing.