SALT LAKE CITY — East High graduate and Purdue-bound soccer player Addy Feldman has donned the red, white, and blue for U.S. youth national teams. She scored 38 goals and notched 15 assists in her final season with the leopards, but her hard work began long before her first national call-up.
"The moment I just started touching the ball, I just had a passion for it," said Feldman, "I loved it so much, and I was going to do anything really for the sport, and I realized this is what I want to do in the future."
She grew up playing soccer alongside her older sister.
"I started playing when I was really little. My sister grew up playing; I was at the field whenever she was at the field. I trained with her team when she was 4 years older than me. I grew up with a really strong passion for the game. My parents, my sister, they've taught me to always be a competitor, but not settle," said Feldman.
Her perseverance and work ethic have propelled her to the national stage.
"I've been taught my whole life that it's ok to be the smaller kid, it's ok to not be the fastest, but it's not ok to not give your best effort," she said, "I take that with me all the time when I go to the national team it's 'hey I'm here and I'm here to compete and I'm ready to show you what I have,' Utah soccer is a little bit slept on and it probably shouldn't be."
Feldman has suited up for the United States nine times.
"When you go play for your country, it's just a little bit different, more of a chip on my shoulder to go represent the crest," she said proudly, "if you think about it, there's millions of kids and people my age who want to receive this call-up and there's only 30 spots for there to be, or 20 spots, whatever roster you're making, I think you have to take that with such pride and such a joy that this is an opportunity that not a lot of kids get, my technical ability and just the flair and creativeness I bring to the game I think is my special quality."
She's heading to play at Purdue in the fall, but her dreams rise above the collegiate level.
"I think my club coach said it perfectly, 'it takes courage to be patient,' that's in a lot of things, there's been multiple camps where I haven't been called up, during that time, how do you continue to get better, but also how do you continue to be patient," Feldman continued, "ultimately the goal is to be in women's World Cup with the full national team, I'll do anything and I'll sacrifice anything to make that happen."
