The journey to UCLA was not an easy one for Iris Mora.
It has involved challenging the boys at age 5, leaving home at
15, and for a few months, giving up everything to dedicate herself
to a standardized test at 20.
But in the end, it seems like it has all come together.
“It was hard, but I’m here,” Mora said.
“And I’m trying to do my best.”
So far this season, her best has been plenty good enough for the
No. 2 UCLA women’s soccer team. The sophomore forward leads
the team in goals and assists, having registered nine goals and 12
assists in the team’s 18 matches.
“She’s just very special,” coach Jill Ellis
said.
Last year at about this time, Mora was just beginning to
demonstrate her importance to the team, scoring seven goals in only
14 matches.
But that doesn’t mean she was comfortable off the
field.
The Cancun, Mexico native was forced to deal with the anxieties
and worries that all UCLA freshmen face, while simultaneously
attempting to overcome a language barrier. Add to that the fact
that she had devoted her life to playing with the Mexican National
Team for four straight years, and hadn’t been enrolled in
school since she graduated at age 17, and you have no easy
task.
“The first year school-wise was very hard,” she
said. “There’s a lot of things that you have to do that
I wasn’t used to doing. There’s so much stuff going
on.”
But Mora has been overcoming things her entire life, learning
and growing in the process.
She started playing soccer at age 5, when she was forced to play
with little boys because there wasn’t a place for girls.
However, she quickly earned a place for herself.
“If you’re good, they don’t make fun of
you,” she said. “You make fun of them. If you’re
good, they respect you.”
Mora started playing soccer with older women at age 13, and she
left home at 15 to travel the world with the national team.
Mora’s ability to learn and adapt on the road allowed her to
better understand how college works.
This awareness has shown up on the field, as she has grown more
comfortable with her teammates and the American style of play.
“She’s evolving,” Ellis said. “Like a
lot of freshmen, the first year is an adjustment year. Now
she’s really hitting her comfort level. And once the
confidence comes, the sky is the limit.”
Ellis first became aware of Mora when a friend, former Notre
Dame defender and current Mexican National Team player Monica
Gonzalez, alerted her of Mora’s potential.
“She said, “˜I think this player can win the Hermann
Trophy. She’s that good,'” Ellis said.
This is no small compliment, considering that the Hermann Trophy
is the most prestigious individual award given in collegiate
soccer. Past winners include the likes of Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly
and Shannon MacMillan.
“It immediately piqued my interest,” Ellis said.
Gonzalez talked to the Bruin coach early in 2001, and that
summer Ellis traveled to Mexico City and saw a game with Mora, her
father, Jesus, and her brother, Gerardo.
By the fall of 2002, Mora was a Bruin. And that’s the way
she wanted it since the time she was 17.
“I came to play against UCLA one time with the national
team, and I saw the university,” Mora said. “I thought
it was awesome.
“I decided that if I wanted to come to college, I wanted
to come here.”
Three years later, Ellis presented the star forward with that
very opportunity.
“I took it immediately,” Mora said. “I
didn’t have any doubt about it.”
There had been doubt, however, when Mora first started playing
internationally. She had initially wanted to pursue a professional
career, thinking that her life would be devoted strictly to the
game she loves.
But after five straight years of only soccer, Mora reexamined
things.
“I thought, I don’t have a life,” she said.
“I don’t have anything else.”
When Mora made the commitment to attend UCLA, she believed it
would be all fun and games. But the daunting prospect of passing
the SAT suddenly became a legitimate concern.
“It was really hard,” she said. “But when you
work hard for those things and you really want to do it, you just
get it done.”
Getting it done for Mora involved moving to Long Beach to live
with her uncle, and hiring an SAT tutor with whom she studied for
about 10 weeks. In fact, Mora’s family was so dedicated to
the prospect of her playing collegiate soccer that her father sold
some land in Cancun to pay for the tutor, who ultimately helped her
pass the test.
“(My father) has always been very supportive of me,”
Mora said. “He went to all of my games when I was
little.”
And now that she’s 22 and all grown up, her father still
comes to her games. Jesus traveled to Westwood two weeks ago to
watch his daughter, who has now come into her own as a confident
American soccer star.
It seems to be a far cry from last season, when she conducted
almost all of her interviews mostly in Spanish.
“Now I feel like (the media) can understand me,” she
said. “In the beginning, I didn’t feel like I could
express myself and talk about my life in English.”
As her comfort level with the language and college life
continues to improve, Mora is still making strides on the soccer
field. She has become a model for young Mexican girls, as she is
the first Mexican-born female to play collegiate soccer in the
United States.
And if she continues to improve, that Hermann Trophy may not be
too far off.
The sky is the limit indeed.