Sophomore Abigail Torres is a student-athlete who plays JV soccer, patrolling the field as a left-center midfielder, and is the team captain. In addition to playing soccer, Torres is an active participant in WRHS’s Leadership Program. Both keep her busy, and she excels in each.
Torres finds playing center midfield the most difficult to play to the point she used never to want to play it. However, now that she enjoys soccer and has improved, she loves playing center midfield. However, when Abigail was younger, she didn’t like playing soccer and quit for a while. But her passion for soccer was back during her freshman year, and now she hopes to be able to play more often.
Torres plays soccer because she’s happiest when on the field and feeling the rush while playing. She looks up to the famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, a famous Portuguese soccer player. Like Ronaldo, Abigail is also Portuguese, and her family is from the same Madeira Island as Ronaldo. Torres finds inspiration from his playing style and how he became the best in the world when he was young.
Her teammate Julianna Paculba says about Torres, “Abby is a strong leader and consistently keeps the team going on and off the field.”
Abigail’s most memorable soccer moment was discovering she was picked to be JV’s team captain a second time for her sophomore year. As a result, she’s achieved player of the Match twice in one season. In addition, being a player of the Match made her feel good being acknowledged by her coaches and teammates.
Torres is a natural leader and enjoys the role as she takes the lead and guides people unfamiliar with the campus. In addition, the leadership role is incredibly gratifying as it helps her connect to lower-grade girls who want to play sports.
Abigail isn’t only an athlete, but she is a student-athlete. She works hard to balance school and sports because they both are time-consuming, sometimes not giving her not much time to sleep. But, no matter how hard it gets, Abigail will always find a way to manage soccer and academics throughout high school. Torres plans to continue her education in the medical field, and although she would like to include soccer, she knows the time commitment to her dream career may require most of her attention.
“Abigail is very humble, but she works very hard,” said her coach, Bailey Nelson. “Student-athletes have to balance school, sports, and even mental health. Abigail is someone who can manage all of these things as a 15-year-old sophomore captain of the JV soccer team.”
Even though Abigail is only in her second year in soccer, she has come a long way and worked extremely hard to get where she is now. Torres believes she has improved so much since she first started last year.
“It takes a lot of mental strength to work at 100% during all games and even practices because what you practice becomes your outcome,” Torres said.
