Between playing soccer for Vardar ECNL in the spring and fall, being a member on IKE’s varsity team and practice sessions, soccer was Bella Palazzolo’S life.

“I really liked playing soccer in high school. I enjoyed the community feeling and playing among peer,” Palazzolo said.

Throughout high school Bella practiced and played soccer five days a week during the season.

“It was amazing knowing all my prior hard work paid off,” Palazzolo said.

Due to her skill and achievement on the field she was awarded a scholarship to St. Louis University to play women’s soccer.

“It was really exciting getting a scholarship to SLU. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to play for a great program and get a very good education,” Palazzolo said.

Now she’s at school full-time and plans to go into medicine. She works harder than she ever did because of the demands college soccer puts on her schedule. During the soccer season, she practices every day except Monday, and plays in 20 games. Practices however don’t end after the season is over and even throughout the off-season she practices every weekday.

“My first week of college soccer was intense, intimidating, and hard. The speed of play, expectation, and overall talent on the team was 10 times greater than anything I had ever experienced before” Palazzolo said. “My first game was awesome, it was definitely a wake up call, I got an adrenaline rush playing in front of so many people.”