Freshman Sydney Eaton competed at the U.S. Youth National Team (USYNT) Training Camp in Chula Vista, California from Sept. 8-15.
Eaton was initially recognized and scouted while playing for Tophat on her U-15 Girls Academy Gold team. She received an email from a USYNT director inviting her to the training camp. Eaton believes this will help her get closer to her goal of playing professional soccer.
“When I first saw the email, I was just initially very happy and excited,” Eaton said. “I was being offered a really great experience and almost couldn’t believe it. Going to the camp will hopefully help me with my long-term goals to go pro and to be on the U.S. National Team.”
The camp roster consisted of only 24 girls in the U-15 age group from 11 states. Eaton emphasized the high level of competition among all the players.
“Everybody there is good, so you have to consistently show effort and work really hard to show out and prove that you want it,” Eaton said. “It was very hard on your body. A good word to describe it would be just super intense.”
While Eaton describes the camps as grueling, freshman Adelyn Freitag, Eaton’s middle school teammate, said she believes Eaton’s skillset and work ethic allow her to stand out on the field.
“I would say she is very determined,” Freitag said. “She is always working hard. When she loses the ball, she will go right after it and try and get it back. When she makes a mistake, she just lets it go and again works hard to fix it.”
Eaton’s dad, Coleman Eaton, expanded on Freitag’s ideas, attributing Eaton’s success to her hard work. He said he hopes Eaton learned that in the long run persistence proves rewarding.
“When I found out, I was just excited and proud to see that the work she has been putting in is being recognized,” Coleman Eaton said. “I hope that she takes away what consistency does for you, what hard work does for you, and just what setting goals and reaching further than what you expected can do. I want her to know what being a go-getter looks like and what that can result in for you if you actually prioritize those goals for you and try to complete them.”
Eaton believes the high level of training is crucial to her skill development.
“The camps definitely help me to get better and to see that there are so many other good players my age,” Eaton said.
Eaton started playing recreational soccer at three years old. She said ever since then she has had a passion for the sport.
“As I grew up, soccer started getting more competitive,” Eaton said. “Over time it just became an even bigger and bigger part of my life, and I grew to fall in love with it.”
Eaton highlighted the difficulties of balancing schoolwork, soccer, social life and family. Eaton said with the added high school workload, she has had to learn time management and how to prioritize things.
“I try to get most of my work done during school, but if I do have homework, I always try and get it done before practice,” Eaton said. “For the California trip, I got all of my schoolwork ahead of time and had to make time there to finish it up so I didn’t fall behind.”
Aside from Eaton’s individual success, her Tophat team has also been nationally recognized. Over the summer, they competed at nationals for the 2024 season, and ended up placing first overall for her age group.
“Becoming national champions felt really rewarding,” Eaton said. “Achieving something that my team had been working for so hard all year felt like such a big accomplishment.”
Eaton plans to play for Midtown in the spring. Junior Hudson Joyner said Eaton will be a good addition to the team.
“Having young talent like her will be great to have,” Joyner said. “I play at Tophat with her and have seen her; she’s very good and will be super helpful this year.”
Coleman Eaton said he is excited to see where his daughter’s soccer career will take her. He believes that through consistency and determination, she can achieve anything she puts her mind to.
“We call it a marathon and not a sprint,” Coleman Eaton said. “I want her to understand that everything is temporary and not to get caught up in what’s happening now, but to try to plan for what she wants for the future and to be the person we know she can be.”
