| Susan Estrada |
| Your age as of July 22, 2018 | 57 |
| Where did you grow up (city/state/country, ages 5-18)? | many places, I'm a military brat, Hawaii, Alaska, Morocco, San Diego |
| At what age did you FIRST start playing soccer? | 28, started playing pickup games with guys at work at lunch time |
| Briefly describe your soccer experience as a child (types of leagues, how often you played) | None at all |
| Did you play soccer in college? If no, enter "no." If yes, enter the name of the school. | No |
| Did you stop playing soccer at a particular age? Briefly explain. | No I haven't stopped playing yet. |
| At what age did you FIRST start playing ADULT soccer? | 34 |
| Briefly describe your adult soccer experience. | Started playing indoor soccer with my workmates initially, then found the Allied gardens league so I started playing in that, then added POLWSL, then in the Scripps ranch league and then added PWSL. |
| How did you hear about a women's soccer league in your area? What made you decide to play women's soccer? | I actually don't recall how I found out. I started playing women's soccer since it was very hard to find coed leagues, other than indoor and I wanted to play more often. |
| What are the names of the leagues you play in and how often do you play each week in those leagues? | Allied - 1x, PWSL - 1x (only play in summer), POLWSL - 1x, scripps ranch - 1x |
| Do you participate in tournaments? If yes, which ones and how often? If not, explain why. | Yes - the memorial POLWSL tournament, the senior games, April Vegas and sometimes the Nov Vegas. |
| What is your most memorable moment as a woman soccer player? | When I scored from about 1/4 field in the Turkey shoot 🙂 and I'm a defender. |
| Besides being a player, how have you been involved in youth and/or adult soccer, either personally or professionally? Examples include coaching, referee work and organizing or managing a league. | I'm the treasurer for POLWSL. |
| If you have a child/children, did/do s/he/they play soccer? | N/A |
| If you have a partner, did/does s/he play adult soccer? | No he doesn't. He plays baseball. 🙂 |
| How has playing adult soccer changed your life, whether on a small scale or in a more powerful way? | Helps me keep in shape and gives me an easy way to socialize with other women. |
| Think about the community of women in soccer. How have the women you've met affected your life? Have you made long-term friends? Met your partner? Celebrated together? Lost teammates over time? | They provide valuable friendships. We've celebrated together and lost teammates. |
| Did you have female athlete role models in your life as a young person? If not, did you have male athlete role models? Who were those people, whether specific to you or famous for their sports? | I wasn't into sports when I was young and so I didn't pay attention to any athletes as roll models. |
| Did you have any challenges gaining access to soccer (or sports in general) at any point in your life because of being female? For any other reason? | As a kid it would have been impossible to play soccer since the only female sports when I was in high school were swimming, gymnastics, field hockey and, I think, basketball. |
| Did you have any women in your life who played recreational soccer? If yes, who? | No |
| When thinking about the Global Goals listed above, which one means the most to you and why? | Goal 3 - I want to live a long, healthy life and don't like exercising by myself so playing soccer gets me exercising and playing a team sport motivates me to get out and play. When TCTC (the catalyst training center) had a physical location some of the women I've met playing soccer in PWSL got me to go to workouts at TCTC. When they closed their physical location I shifted my workouts to 24 hour fitness (along with several other of my women soccer pals). |
| What are example of ways that you make an effort to support any/all of these Global Goals in your everyday life, whether personally or professionally? | I regularly encourage women I play soccer with to join me and others at gym workouts as a way to improve their fitness even more. And when younger gals that I know from work get old enough I encourage them to come join any of the soccer leagues I play in. 🙂 |
| What are you most excited about for this trip? | Playing soccer on the island field and visiting a country I've never been to! |
| What are you most concerned about for this trip? | What I'll be able to eat (since I'm vegan 🙂 ). But I managed to eat just fine in Amsterdam so I'm sure I'll manage to find things to eat in Norway too. Oslo will be easier in this regard than Henningsvaer I'm sure. |
