There are some people who develop skill and there are others who are born with natural talent– FAU’s own senior forward Miracle Porter has the best of both worlds as she acquires the two.
Porter began on her soccer journey at the age of three years old, but it wasn’t until age four when her mom and grandmother signed her up at the recreational level. Though Porter was just being introduced to the sport as a player, it was no news to her family as her uncle who was a soccer player, turned personal coach for the young Porter.
“I learned from my uncle, he was a soccer player and when I was younger I wasn’t able to start right away,” Porter said. “But he used to kick the ball at me before practice and I would go with him to his practices and I would just run around, his coach would let me just run around.”
She explained that, since little, she knew she would assume the forward position on the field just because of her speed and her touch. Unlike her, Porter’s uncle played as a defender but still had the speed she says she garnished from him.
“I think I get my speed from him because he is quick just like me. I was always a forward, I was quick. I think that’s why he figured I would be a forward and I was good at it,” Porter said.
Starting from such a young age allowed Porter to grow her talent while honing in on new skills, however, every coin has two sides to it. Porter expressed that she was so good at such a fresh start, that she had to leave rec soccer because some parents began to complain about how unfair it was.
It’s true what they say, “when one door closes, another opens.” For Porter, her soccer career didn’t end here, it was just beginning. Porter’s departure from recreational play allowed her to step into a more challenging game of soccer as she joined a travel team at the age of eight.
Her younger soccer days were just the blueprint which Porter would grow to navigate and build the rest of her career from. She has had many people have impacted her journey so far, one being her past coach who she still keeps in contact with, to this very day.
“He was kind of like a father figure in my life, we were really close and we still talk day-to-day and he still watches every game,” Porter said. “He texts me before the game like ‘what’s the game plan’ and I tell him ‘we’re gonna win, we’re gonna score.’”
A mindset that Porter uses on the field, but also in her every day life is to just be determined and successful. One of the things, FAU offensive coach, Nikki Brown, reminds her is that, “you have to want to score and have the confidence.”
“And I feel like I take that in my life to want to do things that are going to make me successful or determined about the whole thing,” Porter said.
Off of the field Porter is working towards graduating this year with the aspirations of playing soccer at the next level. She has grown an interest in the overseas soccer atmosphere.
“I think when I got to college I realized the overseas plays and how it’s just a different soccer aspect,” Porter said. “I want to experience that because I know they play differently and it’s just different from American style of soccer and I want to experience that.”
Porter is earning her bachelor’s degree in Public Safety Administration where she was inspired to take this path as a child when she would like to act as a doctor doing her own wraps on whatever parts of her body needed it.
She says she was interested in the night shift as an EMT/paramedic as a backup plan, but also sits on returning to college as a potential alternative since she has interests in forensics with a goal of doing work in the field of CSI analysis.
No matter the field Porter plays on, one thing that seems to be for sure is that when she has a goal her shot at it will always be on point by adding her touch.
“Don’t stop chasing your dreams, the road is a long road but it only gets better when you keep going,” Porter said.