Némesis León: the young indigenous student athlete who will go to college in the United States
More than 200 kilometers from the capital, hidden among the mountains of Talamanca in the southern region of the country, is located one of the eight indigenous villages of Costa Rica, the Boruca territory, home of the student athlete Nemésis León.
Its culture, language, crafts, legends, traditions and food, make it a place that is far from the city reality. "The experience of living there, of belonging there is very cool. Being so close to the river and the forest was something that made me fall in love with nature and taught me to appreciate the little things," said Némesis.
Although it is today a more developed territory, the possibilities of entertainment are limited, so soccer becomes an important means of distraction.
Her mother has been her great inspiration to play this sport, "mom played a lot in the indoor soccer field that we have back in the village and I always went behind," she said.
Contrary to what usually happens, women soccer players have been present in the Boruca village. When she was a child, Némesis entered the field and since then she began to develop her passion for soccer. "My mom gave me her cleats, of course, my foot was very small, but I didn't mind," she added.
She quickly stood out, her school teachers encouraged her to play and at the age of 13, Suva Sports signed her and Némesis took the challenge as her priority, so every weekend she left her village by bus to play soccer.
"At that point my mom made me decide, 'do you want a quinceañera party or do you want to keep on playing?' I told her I wanted to play. So all the money she could have spent on a party, she saved it and I spent it on bus tickets", she recalls.
During this time, Suva Sports was promoted to the first division, but the critical economic situation of the team discouraged her from continuing in the sport. "Keep going, staying here in the village is not going to take you anywhere", were the words of motivation from her family, which in a moment of uncertainty, made her take a new step to forge her sporting future.
At the age of 15, her aunt brought her to the capital to attend a three-day tryout with the Dimas team in Escazú and after placing among the coach's favorites, she formally began her training process in the minor divisions, always looking for the possibility of making it into the first team.
Although she was comfortable, the time was approaching to finish high school and enter college, so her mother suggested the possibility of looking for options abroad.
"At that time my mom wasn't very stable financially, so I told her I'd better stay here in Costa Rica", she remembers. But her mother insisted on the possibility and signed her up for English classes so that she would be ready once the time came for her to formally start the college application process.
"I've already paid for everything," her mother told her recently to announce that she had already started the process with Propella and it was time to begin the search for an academic and athletic possibility abroad.
After years of athletic and financial effort, it is now a reality, as Némesis will study and be part of the women's soccer program at Harcum College, a two-year university located in Pennsylvania.
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