SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) –Fifteen-year-old Murray High School junior Sophie Post is inspiring others on her road to professional soccer.
Sophie’s story is similar to other players; she started playing soccer at 4 years old in a local rec league and moved to competitive club as she grew older.
Where her story varies can’t be seen from the sideline. Sophie is hearing impaired and must rely on visual cues from teammates to move up and down the field.
Sophie says, “soccer is always something she wanted to do.” She is a striker for High Plains Select and the Utah Avalanche team along with the high school soccer team.
Sophies feels some of her teammates treat her differently because she can’t hear and feels sometimes, they need to.
“It’s not like glasses, glasses are a little bit more socially acceptable people understand…most people don’t understand about hearing loss,” Sophie says. Sophie is a member of the player pool for the Deaf Women’s National Team.
This is Sophie’s 4th year training on a national level, with the hope of being rostered for the 2020 Deaf World Cup and the 2021 Deaf Olympics. She will be competing at the US Club Soccer National Cup XVIII Northwest Regionals next week.
If her team comes out on top, they’ll be heading to the National Championship for a chance to be crowned the best team in the nation.
Sophie’s message to any other athlete who might feel different is to not listen to other people, and to not let what other people say effect you.
“You can still be amazing in all these other areas to focus on all your good qualities,” Sophie says. She advises other athletes who might have some type of disability to not focus on the negative things about how bad it is but how good it is and how much it can help you in life.