\u201cBecause like, since I was younger, I knew I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I knew I wanted to do this forever,\u201d says Ally Brazier. <\/p>\n
It started on fields like the Pride Complex in Falcon, Colorado, \u201cThis is where their grassroots is. It’s where they start,\u201d says Colorado Pride founder, Candi Brooks.<\/p>\n
Brazier adds, \u201cBack then it was just seriously just bad. It was just two fields. I remember when the third one got built and we had like that really small turf one in the far right, but it just shows like how much that club alone has expanded.And that’s really nice to see considering like I’m like a homegrown Colorado Pride soccer, \u201d<\/p>\n
And now, Ally Brazier is back home, playing on fields like this, \u201cThought that I’d be able to see her play in Colorado again. And that was I was kind of teary eyed when when I found out,\u201d says Ally’s mother, Ann Watt.<\/p>\n
The first player on the new Denver Summit FC NWSL team, \u201cI want a local homegrown soccer Colorado girl to fill those shoes because, like, nothing beats representing your state\u201d<\/p>\n
Before she was Ally Brazier, she was Ally Watt, \u201cThat face sums it up right there,\u201d says Ally’s brother, John Watt. <\/p>\n
A kid energized by competition running track and field at Pine Creek High School and playing soccer at a high level all over the state, \u201cIt was we need to beat as many people as possible and get as many blue ribbons. And yeah, I translated into playing soccer, too. We were always competitive and always wanted to to one up each other or do better than each other at whatever we were working on,\u201d says John Watt.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusy. But we made it, you know, we made it work. You had two kids. They were they both loved soccer,\u201d says Ann Watt.<\/p>\n
Moments in time that defined her rise to being a professional soccer player, \u201cThey\u2019ve been there since the beginning with little ally\u00a0 running around. So I think it’s just really nice to be like the people who have been there from the beginning. It’s like a full circle moment of like coming back home, like, here’s my I won’t say goodbye, but like, here’s like my last end of my career. Like I’m getting older,\u201d says Brazier.<\/p>\n
Candi Brooks was one of her club coaches, the pioneer of the Pride soccer club, now she has a front row seat to the full circle career. \u201cIt was just we were just in awe. It was like, oh my goodness, someone from Colorado Springs is getting to achieve this and would be a part of, you know, history,\u201d says Brooks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s emotional to think about Ally Brazier\u2019s journey, \u201cPlaying for Denver was not in the cards because they didn’t have a team. But it’s a dream come true for her to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 63,000 strong that showed up to the Summit\u2019s first NWSL game was a testament to what the state is: a soccer state, \u201cyou think of all the youth soccer programs, Colorado is a soccer state\u201d<\/p>\n
Now living up north on the I-25 corridor, Brazier is winding down her career. With family and support now closer than ever, \u201cI’m like, I’m at a different part of my career now. So I think it’s just like, this was the next step. I wanted to take. And like having the people from the beginning that were there when I was like, but five to see me now at 29 doing this, I’m like, you guys, the reason why I’m here,\u201d says Brazier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBecause like, since I was younger, I knew I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-661797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661797","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=661797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}