My Soccer Story: Maddy Perez
The first-year pro has attended multiple U.S. youth national team camps
Maddy Perez was just looking for a game. She and her former Long Beach State teammate, Elysia Laramie, showed up at Lexington SC’s combine to get some touches in and compete against high-level players.
Perez didn't know what the USL Super League was, nor did she know where Lexington was. She and Laramie both managed to leave with contract offers.
After researching the club and league, Perez – who had a year of college eligibility remaining – decided to accept. The opportunity to turn professional and play with one of her best friends again was too good to pass up.
“I would have done that after the first year [at Long Beach State] if I could,” she said. “At the end of the day, my goal ever since I was little was to play pro. And if that opportunity came up earlier than it did, I 100% would have jumped on that.”
Perez was one of the countless young girls across the country who looked up to the U.S. women's national team. She knew early on that she wanted to play at the highest level and on the biggest stages possible.
“I think just being at that age and watching the United States women’s national team play, seeing the kind of environment that they were going through, obviously as a little girl I thought that was really cool,” she said. “I think that’s when I decided, like, yeah, I would love to be there one day. I would love to be in a cool environment like that.”
Perez received call-ups to the U.S. youth national team at the U16, U17, U18, and U20 levels. In those national team camps, she found other players with the same relentless drive she has.
Those experiences confirmed to her that all of the sacrifices she was making were worth it.
“Being there kind of allowed me to make another decision,” she said. “Yes, I really want to be in this environment. I think that was kind of like a little test because it shows the amount of work that you need to put in.”
Since arriving in Lexington, Perez has enjoyed the challenges that come with being in a professional environment. She has started 13 of Lexington’s 14 games in the inaugural season of the USL Super League and is tied with teammate Madison Parsons for the league lead with five assists.
“It was a huge transition from college to here in the sense of, like, everyone here wants it and everyone here wants to work and is gonna try hard and is gonna act like they want to be here,” Perez said. “In that sense, it was just super, super refreshing.”
As her career continues, Perez hopes to inspire the next generation of young female soccer players. With more pathways to a professional career available than ever before, she wants everyone to know that there is not one “right” way to reach the pros. As Perez learned through her own experience, everyone’s journey is different – and unpredictable.
“I want to be able to show people that they can do it too,” she said. “And it doesn’t matter where they came from. It doesn’t matter what club they play for. It doesn’t matter what college they went to. You don’t have to go to this big, sparkly college to be a professional athlete. You just need to put in the work.”