Easton Brooks was determined to pursue soccer, despite his early struggles.<\/p>\n
CARROLLTON, Texas \u2014 Mark and Kristie Brooks, of Carrollton, say their youngest son was born to play baseball.<\/p>\n
Mark played, their first two played, and their youngest was named after a prominent baseball manufacturer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe name Easton came from Easton equipment,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n
So, when Easton was finally old enough for sports, he naturally gravitated to soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just were lost,\u201d Kristie said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know anything about soccer. I\u2019d never even been to a soccer game.\u201d<\/p>\n
His first time training with the local select team, there were a lot of talented kids, and Easton wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfterwards, I asked the coach, \u2018What\u2019s your assessment?\u2019\u201d Kristie said. \u201cHe said, \u2018to be honest, he\u2019s one of the worst soccer players I\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Guillermo Lopez didn\u2019t make that comment, but he also didn\u2019t disagree.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t stand out in a positive way, I\u2019ll put it that way,\u201d Lopez laughed.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Easton believed that one day he would play in Europe, at the sport\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to have fun,\u201d Easton said. \u201cI didn\u2019t care what they were saying. I wanted to be as good as those other kids and prove that I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said we will continue to, we\u2019ll pay the money, we\u2019ll do everything we have to do to get you there if you put in the work,\u201d said Kristie.<\/p>\n
Easton upped his training, started working with coach Lopez and within a couple of years was pretty much the best player on his team.<\/p>\n
He was so improved, he was invited to try out and then selected to play in Spain.<\/p>\n
However, Easton is 15, and FIFA doesn\u2019t allow minors to play internationally unless one of their parents lives in that country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to move over there and let him follow this dream cause he\u2019s done his obligation,\u201d Kristie said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to meet ours. We told him we would get him there if he did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, they did. Mark stayed home, and Kristie got a job in Spain. Last year was Easton\u2019s first overseas.<\/p>\n
He made such an impression last season that this year, he was selected to play with a high-level professional club, Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n
However, there\u2019s been a snafu with his paperwork, so Easton is back in the United States, playing here, while waiting to rejoin his team in Spain.<\/p>\n
When he does go back, he intends to stay to play professionally in Europe and eventually for the U.S. national team.<\/p>\n
From the worst soccer player on the field to one of the best on the planet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, he\u2019s the ultimate example of what you can become,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ok not to be good at something,\u201d Easton said. \u201cAs long as you just love the sport and keep playing, you can gain so much from that that you won\u2019t even realize in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Easton said he\u2019s not content just playing in Europe. He wants to be the best who\u2019s ever played the game, proving that it\u2019s in his DNA to always swing for the fences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easton Brooks was determined to pursue soccer, despite his early struggles. CARROLLTON, Texas \u2014 Mark and Kristie Brooks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-331686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}