Hunter Westphal Memorial Scholarship

My coach for club soccer has inspired me beyond imaginable. He is a very successful entrepreneur. He started the soccer program at Union High School and he also has his own company. He helped shape me, not only into the player I am today but the person I am today. He is selfless and always made sure us girls were okay and being our absolute best. He showed me that hard work does pay off. After I lost My mom he made sure I wasn't going to fall into a horrible depression. He checked on me and made sure I was still going chasing my dreams. He would make sure I wasn't letting anything get in my way. If I had a bad day he would uplift me and show me just because you have a day doesn't mean you need to continue to have a bad day. He also lost both his parents one year during our soccer season and he opened up about how hard it was on him. It made me feel better knowing grief comes in all shapes and sizes. Just because I lost my Mom at 15 it wouldn't have been any different if I lost her at 64. The pain is still there. When I started my first year of club soccer, I had this thought I was a decent player but I was not. He worked with me for hours. He taught me soccer is only 25% skill and 75% mental and trying to get past a mental block with a sport is so hard. After my first year, I was officially the player I had thought I was. I was even better than I thought. Then came our second year and I was excelling and I owed it all to my coach for believing in me. I would have never imagined a coach would have this much impact on me until I met my club coach. He did not only make me fall back in love with my sport but he also was my inspiration. I look up to him and can know, no matter what your goal, in life can be achieved. You have to work so hard to achieve the goal but give it time and it will happen. Having the influence of someone like my coach made it easy to not lose tunnel vision of achieving goals in soccer and academically.