Defender and midfielder Danielle Glazer plays for three different soccer teams, all while keeping up her grade point average as a junior at Bayside High School.
Glazer has been playing soccer for about six years now. She plays for the Massapequa Elite, the Olympic Development Team and the Bayside High School team.
“Ever since I first started playing, I’ve enjoyed soccer with my friends,” she said. “Then I just quickly picked up on it.”
“My club team won the state cup,” said Glazer, recalling one of her favorite on-field moments. “Afterwards, we went into regionals against a team that was top in the country.”
When Glazer is on the field, she always plays to the best of her ability. She makes sure to work hard and not to give up on her team. Even if Glazer gets tired, she pushes her body through the game.
Her high school soccer team has played four games, winning three and playing to a tie in the other. Her club team is currently off, but they still train and go to tournaments together.
“In two weeks, we’re going to have the WAGS tournament,” she said, referring to the Washington Area Girls Soccer League, the premier all-girls soccer tournament in the country. “We will go to Washington, North Carolina, Florida and Las Vegas.”
While she’s still not sure whether she will stay home in Bayside for college or possibly go out of state, she definitely wants to play college soccer at a Division 1 school.
An active kid for as long as she can remember, Glazer always played and ran around in the park when she was younger. Her dad is really big on sports, which is one of the reasons why she became a soccer player.
In the classroom, math and science are Glazer’s strongest subjects.
“I actually want to do something in those fields when I get older – possibly physical therapy,” said Glazer.
With a GPA of nearly 86, it often becomes hard and time consuming for Glazer to balance school and soccer, particurlarly since she’s mostly taking advanced classes. But thinking ahead comes as a gift, and Glazer was smart to finish all her math and science requirements early on.
A typical busy day for Glazer would be to wake up and go to school, run home for some homework, quickly drive to practice – a 45-minute commute – stay at practice for about two hours, drive back home – another 45-minute drive – finish up the rest of her homework and then finally shower and go to bed.
While she knows that it’s important to try hard and juggle both school and sports at the same time, Glazer believes that grades come first.
“We need the grades for sports to get into a good college and if kids can’t maintain their grades, they should possibly take some time off and bring their grades up, then come back to sports,” advised Glazer.
Michael Jordan is Glazer’s favorite athlete. She mentioned that it’s inspirational how he is one of the best basketball players out there.
“I also think [Lionel] Messi is good. He’s actually a really great player,” said Glazer.
The people she looks up to and have become her inspirations are her friends that have been accepted to and play for Division 1 schools.
“Actually there was this freshman playing for Norte Dame and I started to think ‘wow that’s my friend’s sister. I know her and one day maybe it could be me playing,’” said Glazer.
