Pro soccer player gives back to San Mateo kids

As Perez, 37, looks to play her last professional soccer games this year, she’s ready to enter into a new chapter of life. Kicking off this next era includes coming back home to San Mateo to share with children her recently authored book “Little Vero, Big Dreams.” 

The children’s book is about the resilience, perseverance and dedication needed to chase your dreams. It follows Perez’s story growing up as a shy Mexican American girl who fell in love with soccer and did everything in her power to play as a professional on some of the world’s biggest fields. 

“It’s like me, simple but super honest,” Perez said. “It has a great powerful message I want to share.”

This week, Perez is slated to visit a few elementary schools, including her alma mater Baywood Elementary School in San Mateo, and share her story with the kids — and, of course, play some soccer with them during recess. She recently did the same at some schools in Los Angeles. 

Authoring a book was not always something Perez thought she wanted to do, or could do. As a particularly quiet person who isn’t fond of public speaking, it is usually only when Perez is on the pitch that her spirit and vigor shines through. Luckily, she said, kids are easy to talk to. 

“I can’t even talk in huddles sometimes with my teammates, but when I’m playing, I’m different,” Perez said. “But I’m so passionate about my story that it just comes out naturally.” 

While Perez is back in town, she always makes an effort to train a few kids at the 1v1 Training facility in Belmont, which her friend owns. There, she takes pride in coaching the next generation of Peninsula kids that may one day become professionals. 

“One of my teammates I played with in AYSO, I now train her daughter,” Perez said. “It’s full circle, coming back home and training the next generation from this area.” 

When Perez was a kid growing up in San Mateo, her parents threw her into a bunch of different sports to keep her active, but there was nothing like seeing Perez on the pitch, her mother used to say. It was on the soccer field that Perez looked the happiest and had the most fun, she would say.

Perez’s success was driven by her love for the sport. All of the lengthy practices that continued after teammates left and the training she did with anyone who was down would not have happened if the love for soccer wasn’t there, Perez said. 

“It was just something inside me that I fell in love with the sport, an innate desire of mine,” Perez said. “I just loved it. It wasn’t even until I was much older that I realized I was actually really good.” 

Perez played for her college, the University of Washington, before being recruited to play for the Mexican women’s national team. She has also played for the Women’s Professional Soccer league before it absolved, the National Women’s Soccer League, club teams in Mexico and even for club teams in Iceland and Saudi Arabia.

A key lesson Perez hopes to teach kids is to make sure they’re having fun. 

“I kept playing as long as I did because of that love and because I enjoyed it,” Perez said. “There’s so much pressure on kids nowadays. I train 8- and 9-year-olds that can barely control a ball but their parents want them to already train like professionals.” 

It takes immense commitment and drive to be a professional, but it’s not going to happen overnight and it won’t happen if your heart isn’t in it, Perez said. 

While Perez’s parents were always supportive, they made sure that it was Perez’s own desire to play that drove her to work hard. It instilled a sense of responsibility over her own dreams, Perez said. 

“If you want it, you have to work for it. We’ll help, but you gotta do the work,” Perez recalled her parents saying. 

Growing up, Perez remembers adults in her life who suggested going pro was too risky, or too lofty a goal. Negative comments never lingered in Perez’s mind though, and she just focused on doing what she loves. 

“I think it’s just something inside of you, you can’t buy it, someone can’t give it to you,” Perez said.

At each school site Perez visits, she asks the kids to visualize themselves as an adult doing what they love. When they open their eyes, students will share the dreams they have for themselves. 

“You don’t have to dream to be a professional athlete, but whatever you dream, you can achieve,” Perez said. “If you can see it, you can believe it, and then you’re going to live it.”