A year ago, Miranda “Mir” Thomas and Moriah “Cho” Brown did not realize that when their paths crossed one night at Champion’s QUEST, they would both eventually take the same path to college TOGETHER:

Miranda “Mir” started training at Champion’s QUEST on October 7, 2013 after Coach Brittany saw her play a soccer game for her NHB premier level soccer team. Mir wanted to increase her speed and agility on and off the soccer ball. For the next year until now, Mir has not only improved her game stamina but has also increased her strength, power, and confidence to be a leader for her Edison High school soccer team.

For most soccer players, college recruiting begins Sophomore year of high school. As this may sound very early for most student-athletes, college soccer scholarships and roster spots are very difficult to attain if you wait until your senior year to begin looking at college soccer teams. For college, Mir knew that she wanted to major in Engineering. This particular major immediately eliminated many colleges as not every college has an engineering major..

At the same time Mir was looking into colleges, Cho had found a college that fit her academic, athletic, and personal needs – UC Merced. After attending an ID (identification) soccer camp. UC Merced was extremely interested in Cho and Cho was very impressed with the benefits UC Merced had to offer her as a student-athlete majoring in human biology, with an emphasis in nursing.

With UC Merced on Mir’s list of colleges with engineering majors, Coach Brittany encouraged Mir to speak with Cho and look deeper into UC Merced. Mir decided to attend an ID soccer camp with Cho this past summer and after the camp, both Mir and Cho were offered roster spots on the women’s soccer team at UC Merced.

Excited about finding the right college fit, Mir and Cho verbally committed to play soccer at UC Merced and the commitment to a friendship that started one night in a gym and will take them on a memorable journey of being collegiate soccer players in 2016.

Coach Brittany: Mir and Cho’s story is an example that goals and dreams can be achieved through hard work and dedication. Their journey to college soccer has not been easy and they have leaned on each other for encouragement and support in and out of the gym. It will be amazing to watch them take the field together as teammates since they had not known each other prior to Champion’s QUEST and most likely would have never known each other if they didn’t take the effort to put in the extra hours in the gym.”