Midfielder Lexi Missimo and forward Trinity Byars first took the soccer field together as 5-year-olds. They’ve been playing side by side since.
Along the way, the talented players faced similar questions, including whether to turn professional straight out of high school or to continue developing through college soccer. They each chose to play at the University of Texas, where they are each now sophomores, but the lure of the professional game was there at the time and remains.
The two players sat down with The Equalizer recently during a U-23 United States women’s national team training camp — where they were once again teammates — to discuss the decisions that they made and those that still loom in a shifting landscape of players turning professional as teenagers.
“I would say the decision is talking to your family and really just getting the best for you,” Missimo said about choosing to play at Texas. “I feel like for me and Trinity, we had offers at a young age and it’s just the decision [of] what’s best for you at that time. And for me and her, I just thought it was best to just go to Texas at the time, but, at this moment I feel like at any point we could make the decision to go pro.”
