There is very little doubt that Danesha Adams has had a positive impact in her career as a member of the UCLA women’s soccer team. But getting to where she is today has by no means been an easy task.
The senior forward’s continued success stems from her experiences and battles against a number of factors that would have caused others to lose focus of their ultimate goals and dreams.
The start
Adams recalls her first memories involving soccer as times when all the attention was directed elsewhere.
At the age of 4, she began attending her older brother Damaris’ youth soccer games but would spend her time on the sidelines dribbling balls and slowly falling in love with the sport.
The first problem Adams encountered was with her age.
She was younger than most of the other girls looking to join club teams.
However, she didn’t let that stop her, and she went on to spend four years pitted against girls who were older than her while she played with a Diamond Bar club team.
“I was always a little girl and everyone around me was faster than me and stronger than me,” Adams said.
It wasn’t until Adams was 12 that the two-year age gap between herself and all the other girls on the team became too wide, forcing Adams to transfer to the FC Slammers in Newport Beach.
In eighth grade, Adams’ teammates and the game of soccer would prove to play even greater roles in her life when her parents separated and she and her brother moved in with their mother.
But her parents’ separation didn’t really hit home until two years later, when Adams found herself aboard a plane with her mother and brother headed to Shaker Heights, Ohio, where the family would spend the rest of Adams’ high school years.
“That’s when it set in, like, “˜This is really happening to me,'” Adams said. “I didn’t do too well in school my sophomore year because I was thrown into a new environment.”
The move was made so that her mother, LaVonne Adams, could be closer to her family, all of whom reside in Ohio.
Their proximity helped Danesha Adams settle in and become comfortable in her new home.
“It was definitely hard to make friends at first, but spending so much time with family and having cousins so close was always nice,” she said.
But there was still something missing.
Back and forth
When she reached Ohio, there was a void left in her life where her teammates from the FC Slammers had once been.
Though she played for her high school team, it wasn’t the same as spending time with the girls who had surrounded her week in and week out for the past three years, so she made a decision that she would never regret: to remain a part of the club team.
“I was probably on a plane twice a month,” Adams said. “Fly in on Friday and leave Sunday night; catch the red eye.
“I did that for three years solid. It was kind of hard because I didn’t really train that much in Ohio.”
Adams’ decision limited her opportunities to play soccer in Ohio because no club teams were willing to accept her commitment to her California-based team.
However, playing on the club team also brought her well-deserved attention for her skills, as she and her teammates, led by coach Ziad Khoury, captured the state championship.
Adams was named the MVP of the U-19 Super Group at the 2003 Surf Cup after leading her team to the title.
“For Danesha, soccer is her outlet, and soccer will continue to be her outlet for years to come,” Khoury said. “Soccer has been a very big part of Danesha’s life. The team brought a lot to her. It was a very successful team soccer-wise and that was like her second family.”
Khoury, who was a father figure and role model for Adams, even hosted the traveling player for an entire summer and, along with the other families, helped pay for her flights to and from Ohio.
“Without him and without the rest of the girls on that team, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Adams said.
“They took me under their roof, and I felt like it was a burden, but for them it was just a privilege to have me there with their daughter.”
Although she stopped playing for the team when the players went their separate ways for college, Adams hasn’t forgotten her roots and what has helped to get her to where she is today, as both an individual and as a soccer player.
To show her appreciation and loyalty to Khoury, as well as to give back and be a role model to others who are in the situation she was once in, Adams continues to help the team when she has the time and maintains a strong relationship with her coach.
“Not a lot of people come back and remember where they came from,” Khoury said. “That’s one thing about Danesha ““ she’ll never forget where she comes from. That alone shows you what kind of character she has.”
Creating a legacy
It was in one of her club games with the Slammers that Adams paved a path for her future.
With UCLA coach Jill Ellis looking on from the stands, Adams was able to put three balls into the back of the net while showcasing her athleticism, technique and talent.
“Danesha was both athletic and technical,” Ellis said. “That’s a great combination for our sport.”
Fortunately for Adams, she had decided against committing to another Southern California team, ironically, current crosstown rival, USC. During her junior year, she received an offer from the Trojans and took an unofficial visit before realizing she hadn’t quite reached her potential.
“I thought to myself, “˜I’m cutting myself short if I commit so early,’ so I decided to wait it out a little bit,” Adams said.
Rather than cut herself short, Adams came to the realization that she wanted to help create a name and a reputation for whichever college team she ended up joining.
With that in mind, national powerhouse North Carolina ““ already established ““ was quickly out of the picture, and UCLA came to mind.
“I knew the program had never won a national championship and that was my goal,” Adams said. “I wanted to be able to make a legacy somewhere else. I feel that now that I’ve been here, I’ve definitely made an impact for the last three years and that’s always been what I’ve wanted to do.”
“An impact” might be an understatement though, as the Bruins have reached the Final Four for three consecutive years, making it to the national championship game twice ““ including one lost on penalty kicks, during Adams’ freshman year.
However, Adams has yet to attain her most sought-after goal at UCLA: capturing that elusive national championship.
She may not have to wait much longer, as this year’s team has caught fire and seems destined to reach the Final Four at the very least and has as good a chance at winning the title as any other program in the nation.
Adams acknowledges this, and she also knows that the freshmen will play an essential role in landing a Bruin championship, so she uses her experiences and wisdom to help guide them.
“There’s some freshmen here ““ we just have to keep working with them (so they know) that it’s a privilege to step on this field every day,” Adams said. “Not everyone can walk here and say they go to UCLA.”
Life after UCLA
By no means will Adams’ soccer career be coming to an end at the end of her senior year. Anyone who has worked with her can see that she only continues to grow.
Though she has learned a great deal from Ellis in her time as a Bruin, Adams has a bright future ahead of her. Her career will likely including a run with the U.S. national team, for which she has already recorded an assist in her lone game with the team.
“I want to continue to play soccer for the national team and try and help that program now,” Adams said. “Maybe four years from now we win a World Cup. I want the big picture, and the big picture is to play on the national team and keep a spot on that team.”
For the time being, her biggest goal is to finish school at UCLA and graduate with a sociology degree.
However, she won’t be able to graduate with the rest of her classmates, as she took off two quarters to compete with the World Championships team and national team.
As a player who came to UCLA with raw talent and has since been recognized as one of the nation’s best collegiate players, Adams hopes to continue pursuing her dreams, no matter the obstacles she must cross to get there.
“She has excellent potential,” Ellis said.
“To be honest, I think Danesha’s best years are ahead of her.”