Monique van Rheenen

My first love was soccer.

I did not really have a chance to love anything else because my dad came to the US from the Netherlands to play soccer.

And so it was in my blood.

And I was really excited when I made varsity my freshman year in high school.

I worked my ass off because I wasn't the biggest, I wasn't the strongest, but I was the fastest and I had a killer left foot.

And so I was really excited.

First couple games, I got off the bench, I got onto the field and I played.

and started a couple games when we played some of the weaker teams and had a really solid start.

So my sophomore year, my goal was that I was going to be starting on that field every single game.

I did all the summer workouts, went through the tryouts, breezed through it, and we get into the season.

I was fast.

I had good foot skills.

I was by far the smallest girl on the field.

And so I wasn't quite the toughest.

And oftentimes, if it was a bigger girl that was marked up against me, she could push past, and I'd lose the ball.

My coach was kind of tough, and she didn't like that I was getting knocked around.

And so she told me, Mo, you've got to get mean.

You've got to knock them around back.

And I thought, I don't know how to do this when girls are twice my size, but sure, OK.

And she threatened me.