Say aloha to former Leigh soccer player Piper Bertani
SAN JOSE, Calif. — At just 18 years old, Piper Bertani’s soccer career looks akin to a professional. Her club team MVLA Roma is currently ranked #2 in the nation, and are hoping to make a run for a national championship in June. Piper was a scholar athlete all 4 years at Leigh High School. She was MVP for BVAL, and the first defender to ever get MVP to boot. This season she scored ten goals as a Center back for Leigh. During high school she has been Freshman of the year, 1st team, Junior of the year and MVP. And finally, at the club level, she was ECNL 2nd team regionally. But Piper knows all her accomplishments come from hard work, determination, and prioritization-skills many young adults struggle with. But not Piper. She fondly recalls a former coach’s words of wisdom: “if you work hard it will pay off.” And her hard work has indeed paid off, as Piper will be playing soccer for the University of Hawaii in the fall.
All hard work comes with sacrifice—a lesson Piper learned during her thirteen years playing soccer. “My biggest challenge,” Piper states, “is keeping a balance between soccer, school, and life. Unfortunately, there are times I miss out on some experiences but my love for soccer outweighs the sacrifice.” Not to say Piper is all work and no play! “I try to have some downtime to recharge when I have breaks in my soccer schedule,” she explains. Piper’s downtime is often spent traveling, hanging out with friends, or going to the beach. Piper also considers herself lucky—most of her friends are also her teammates. She counts friendship–specifically the relationships she has forged with her teammates on and off the field–as her favorite part of the sport.
In addition to friendship, Piper considers fine tuning her leadership skills as another benefit of soccer. When asked what the sport has taught her, Piper responded with “Leadership, adapt to working with teammates at all different levels, help my team be as successful as possible. Lead by example.” One way Piper leads by example is with self-regulation on the field. During a recent game, after experiencing a set back, Piper was able to calm herself, refocus, and go on to score a goal in the second half!
As for the future, Piper says “going to the University of Hawaii was my dream school and I feel so honored and lucky to be living out my dream. I would love to win a Big West Championship with my U of Hawaii teammates. After my 4 years at Hawaii I’ll see what the future holds.” With her drive and dedication, Piper’s will no doubt be successful in the future!
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