Michael Sanchez and I grew up in New Jersey, not far from here, playing soccer together. When I was in high school, I worked to start an organization to help senior citizens, which I learned a great deal from.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm from California, but my father, who passed away when I was young, was from Newark. When I was kid, we would go back east and catch Yankees games. His side of the family are big Yankees fans. But, the real connection came in '97 when I moved to New York and became friends with the team.
My boyfriend is Italian and from New Jersey, so naturally he was thrilled to meet Joe Pesci.
I had great relationship with the Hispanic - we had a lot of Hispanics in the school actually from different countries, Venezuela, from Brazil, and they all played soccer, and I was on the soccer team, and I developed great relationships with them.
I have gone from a player who thought he would spend his whole career with one organization to a player who's been with three organizations in a week. It's like rotisserie baseball.
I first saw Arnold Palmer when I was just a kid and he came to Columbus to play in a tournament. I watched him on the driving range hit balls that day. We went on to become great friends.
I went to my first college to play soccer.
When I first joined the team, I was playing with the likes of Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett - all those big-time players. It was very intimidating. I had some of these players' posters on my wall growing up, and now I was able to play with them.
We played at a club called, the Elbow Room. Don Carlos, the nightclub owner, was very hip and a very important person who made a big impact on my life.
My father is Jaime Rodriguez from San Antonio, Texas, and I've got one whole half of my family that's Mexican through and through.
At Barcelona, I had the best players ever, and they helped me to be a successful manager.