She is a footballer, she is 17 years old and has many dreams to fulfill. Her name is Melissa Barrantes Barrios and, despite her young age, she shows great maturity and knowledge that she wants to share with other women of her generation. For this reason, the doors were opened for her to lead a new program that seeks to provide tools that empower female footballers like her.
15/30
The space will be called 15/30 and will debut in the coming weeks on the Facebook page Futbol Femenino CR. It will last 30 minutes, during which time Melissa will ask her guests 15 questions. Not only local players, but also international soccer players are expected to participate. Due to the type of format, it will be a very dynamic and entertaining space for the group you want to address.
The objective is that those who watch each episode know what was the process that the interviewee had to follow to get to where she is. In addition, the program will include trainers, physiotherapists, nutritionists and all those professionals who contribute to the comprehensive training of female athletes in our country.
A big challenge
For Melissa, the program will be a great challenge. She will be next to one of the people who works with CR Women’s Soccer, but she will be the main driver. She states that it took her a bit of a surprise, but that the opportunity came after an interview they did with her on the same page, in which she impressed the drivers with his way of expressing himself.
“One of the things that I keep in mind is that sport goes hand in hand with education. Football will not be everything in life, but must be accompanied by academic preparation,” Melissa emphasizes.
She herself, aware of this, is already looking for an opportunity for a sports scholarship at an American university with which she can continue with her higher studies and, at the same time, be able to practice what she likes the most, soccer.
Opportunities
However, she knows that not all women who practice this sport have the same opportunities that she herself is having, so she hopes that the space will be useful to acquire other knowledge and, above all, awaken in them the interest to continue studying.
“You open your eyes, and unfortunately you realize that many do not have that opportunity to get along well academically with sports,” she says. Melissa wants to be an integral footballer, in which both study and football go hand in hand in her life, and that is precisely what she wants to transmit to other young women like her.
Without losing time
Despite her young age, Melissa shows great maturity in the decisions she makes. When the closure of activities due to the pandemic came, she decided to take advantage of the idle time to obtain tools to help her in her future.
For this reason, she obtained the E coaching license, with the Costa Rican Football Federation, which allows her to train boys and girls under 13 years of age. To continue with the studies in this field.
While that moment arrives, she took advantage of the time to take an online sports injury and first aid course, which is taught by a university abroad. And is currently in her last year of high school at ICS International Christian School.
Due to her aspiration to study abroad, she managed to contact ASM Scholarships, an organization that seeks to connect young athletes with American universities so that they can study with an athletic scholarship.
For Melissa, achieving this goal would be extremely important. She understands that soccer is temporary but that it is very useful if through it an academic goal can be achieved. In her case, it would be to study sports psychology or sports management, two emerging disciplines in the country.
She also hopes to work on a humanitarian volunteer project when she goes abroad. Melissa hopes that the pandemic situation will improve and allow her to continue with the other projects that she left on hiatus.
