Soccer phenom Victoria Safradin is on a roll

By Patricia Nugent

Pardon the pun, but local soccer phenom Victoria Safradin is on a roll.

Last October she went to two camps, one in California and one in Florida. After those she was one of 20 players chosen to represent the United States in the Dominican Republic to compete for a World Cup spot.

The road to world-class performance has been paved with a grueling six-days-a-week training schedule. This Eastlake North High School junior, who has been playing since she was 5, takes it all in stride.

“It just felt naturally right to commit my life to it,” she says.

Victoria credits dedication, hard work and “the willingness to miss out on opportunities that other people may not want to miss out on” as pillars to her success.

She also gives a nod to her father, who was a big help to her growing up. He played soccer in Croatia, where he grew up, and once Victoria began to seriously play as a goalkeeper, he would coach her.

The ball field isn’t the only place she shines. Victoria holds down a 4.5 GPA, and is active in the National Honors Society, Volunteers Club and Student Council.

She has already committed to attend the University of Virginia.

“Since I was young, my long-term goal has been to play professional soccer,” says Victoria.

When it comes to that nail-biting moment—the penalty kick—when the stadium suddenly hushes and the goalie has to guess where the ball will end up, she says what’s going through her mind is “purely nothing.”

“I have so much adrenaline running through my body that my mind just goes blank and all I see is the player and the ball,” she says. “I don’t think of anything. My body just moves by itself.”

Her advice for younger girls is to never let anyone get in the way of their dreams, because dreams only become reality if you work as hard as you can to achieve them.

Look for these monthly stories to cover topics from grades K-12 in the Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools System.