REPRESNTATION

Creative Agency // SUN-NY SIDE UP

RORY ROTH: rory@sun-nysideup.com

JILL FERREE: jill@sun-nysideup.com

I am an Athlete.

I have been playing sports for as long as I can remember. I am a natural athlete, so I excelled at many of them playing tennis during my younger years and loved swimming but I preferred to play sports that required shared goals and teamwork therefore concentrating on soccer.I started playing soccer when I was 7 years old. My older cousin would stick me in the goal and take rocket shots at me. It was totally fun and I fell in love with the game. And as my love for soccer progressed, so did my skills. Shortly after, I joined my first team, the West Kendall Optimist Soccer Club, where I played until I was 11. And then from 11 to 13, I joinedMiami Strike Force, one of the top clubs in Florida. People started to take notice of my talents and I became recognized as one of the top soccer players in South Florida. I continued to play soccer in high school and made the Florida Select team for the following four years. At 14, I played for top, nationally ranked clubs like Miami Premier, a team that participated in elite showcase tournaments like Texas Shootout, Raleigh Shootout and WAGS While in my sophomore year of high school, my soccer team made it to the Florida State finals. I played starting center midfielder all 4 years on varsity and was chosen for the All Dade High School Teams. And it was during this time that I also trained with the Florida ODP (Olympic Development Program) team, and was selected for Regionals and U.S. National U16 Pool tryouts. That experience – actually all of it – was pretty awesome to say the least. My last high school summer, when I was 17 years old, I guest played for So Cal United in Los Angeles and set a goal to play college soccer on the West Coast. But then, at the beginning of my Senior Year, during prime college recruitment and scholarship season, I had a soul and career crushing injury. My right ankle was destroyed and I immediately stop playing soccer. I missed the rest of the senior year games and was not able to travel with my club team to any of the elite national tournaments. I was devastated.

Setbacks are opportunities.

Some people take setbacks as something that can set them back. I took my injury as an opportunity to pivot in my life, have an inflection point, and push me forward to focus on my other loves which are music, fashion, and art. Getting injured put a harsh end to my trajectory as a young professional or USWNT hopeful but it allowed me the opportunity to move to NYC, attend F.I.T, and contribute to NYC culture. For the last 10 years in NYC, I worked at places like Nylon Magazine and helped ignite downtown NYC nightlife culture. I was a founding member of the DJ crew Been Trill, which led to DJing for Jay-Z and Kanye West in Cannes one summer and then on tour with them, DJing backstage and after parties during Watch the Throne tour in Europe. I even did a DJ set on BBC Radio 1 for Benji B during that time. Djing has allowed me to put my stamp on global creative culture, and travel the world. Getting injured might have halted my young soccer career, but it also unlocked a future in global creative culture.

Infusing sport into NYC creative culture

In the fall of 2014, I trained and ran the NYC marathon with Christy Turlington-Burns charity. It was a crazy physical journey, that landed me a major life milestone as an athlete and a feature in Harpers Baazar. Coming off of training so aggressively for 26.2 miles, and motivated by the cultural energy of being in Rio for the World Cup, I realized that I was healthy enough, 10 years after my injury, to enjoy futbol again.

The FIFA 2014 World Cup hyped me up about my future with soccer on and off the pitch. I was guest instagramming for Refinery29 directly from FIFA Fan Fest and other awesome spots in Rio. I also modeled for Puma's World Cup Kit collaboration with ALIFE. As the Captain of the Alife Bowery Premier League co-ed team, I pushed myself back onto the pitch, and realized how much I missed the game. After re-joining the game as a competitive player , I immediately wanted to work towards merging my creative career with my identity as a bad ass player. Because I fully emerged myself back in the sport and for the first time let NYC know about my soccer background, I landed two jobs that were awesome.

One was working as an on-camera host for KICK TV during Copa America and Women’s World Cup in 2015, which allowed me to show the soccer community that I know the game for real, with a side of sass! The other is a re-occuruing role as a DJ for The US Soccer Federation. I DJ’d the USWNT last send-off game before the Women’s World Cup in Canada (I got to DJ on the sidelines!) and a USMNT game versus Brazil. I owe a lot to US Soccer and to Kick TV for recognizing that I deserved those opportunities because I am a real player—who also has creative talents.

2019 WOMENS WORLD CUP IN SIGHT

Now in 2018, I have my sights on the Women’s World Cup in France, playing for the Argentine National Team. Since creating the KITH soccer team in 2016, and co-creating their three-season capsule collection with adidas Football, I’ve gotten fully back into the sport—playing professionally for Boca Juniors in Argentina, and also having a trial with French super club Paris Saint-Germain. I’m training my butt off in Miami and NJ ahead of Argentine National Team training camp at the top of 2019 with total focus and motivation, while balancing my Global Brand Ambassador duties for Adidas which usually has me flying around to shoot amazing campaigns with powerful women and leaders in creative culture. There is no time like the present, and I am manifesting my dreams, trying to prove both to myself and to others that you can do anything that you love, and that you work tirelessly to achieve. And have fun too!