Editor’s be aware: Michelle Alozie is a 2024 Houstonian of the 12 months finalist. Learn in regards to the winner and the opposite runners-up right here.
Michelle Alozie is just not your common soccer star—not by a protracted shot. Her trajectory from taking part in together with her siblings in a Southern California yard to roster spots on each the Houston Sprint and the Nigerian ladies’s nationwide crew is fueled by relentless ardour and a uncommon capacity to efficiently steadiness high-stake roles on and off the pitch. And, as if dominating the sport weren’t sufficient, she additionally spends her time researching pediatric most cancers. To say she’s busy could be placing it mildly.
Rising up the youngest of 4 in an immigrant family, Alozie didn’t begin her path to soccer stardom with organized leagues or shiny cleats, however with a decided uncle and numerous sibling rivalry.
“Uncle Emmanuel was the one who launched my whole household to soccer,” Alozie mentioned after one of many rigorous coaching periods that always fill her days. “Since I used to be the child, in fact, I wished to play and be higher than all of my siblings. It was at all times a contest we had.”
The youngest baby’s intuition to outshine the remaining set the tone for a aggressive streak that might serve her properly. Soccer wasn’t simply one thing she excelled at—it was a solution to show herself. At 4 years outdated, she was out on the pitch in her tiny cleats, preventing to maintain up together with her older siblings. It wasn’t till center college that the game grew to become one thing extra critical, and even then, the objective was modest: to get a university scholarship.
“[My parents] didn’t know till I began taking part in soccer that you would be able to get a scholarship for going to varsity and taking part in, they usually beloved that concept as a result of they’re like, ‘Wait, you possibly can go to varsity without cost? Superb, you’re gonna go play soccer,’” she says.
Alozie not solely bought a scholarship but additionally earned a ticket to Yale College, the place she studied molecular biology whereas taking part in Division I soccer. She went to the College of Tennessee for a postgraduate 12 months, furthering her ardour for the sport. That have would finally lead her to Houston, although it wasn’t precisely a straight shot.
After COVID hit, Alozie was at a crossroads. And not using a clear route, she discovered herself crashing together with her sister in Houston. Following slightly encouragement from a good friend on the crew, she reached out to the Houston Sprint teaching workers about coaching. “I guess on myself. I emailed one of many coaches, and it’s identical to historical past wrote itself,” she says. Alozie started as a scrimmage participant, preventing for a spot on the Sprint crew, spending seven lengthy months as a hopeful. “I used to be put in no matter function as a result of I’m a apply participant. I used to be like, ‘I don’t care what I’m doing. Simply let me play.’”
Alozie’s dedication and arduous work on the apply discipline led to her formally becoming a member of the Sprint in 2021 as a ahead. That very same 12 months, she grew to become a analysis technician in pediatric oncology at Texas Youngsters’s Hospital.
“Pediatrics is so unhappy, particularly when it’s paired with oncology, however with the ability to fully change the trajectory of somebody’s life so younger is so, so loopy, and it’s like, so fulfilling,” Alozie says.
Whereas the selection to enter the medical discipline as an athlete may seem to be a jarring one for most individuals, they’re not Alozie. She at all times had a ardour for science; it was only a matter of time earlier than she discovered her area of interest.
“Ever since I used to be little, I simply beloved science and actually beloved animals. I nonetheless love animals. I wished to be a vet, and I assumed it will be so cool to save lots of each animal there may be,” Alozie says with fun. “As I bought older, that transitioned to human and organic sciences. It made sense that medication could be a profession path for me finally.”
Whereas medical college could lie in her future, Alozie is content material with the present work she is doing on most cancers analysis on acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
“The actually lengthy analysis we’re doing is seeing how chemotherapies may help very particular AML cancers and attempting to do extra specialised medication, which is absolutely good as a result of not everybody has the identical precise cancers. That’s tremendous fulfilling,” Alozie says.
Her breakthroughs prolong past her medical profession. Throughout these grueling months of proving herself as a apply participant for the Sprint, Nigeria’s nationwide crew got here knocking. The Tremendous Falcons have been quick on gamers and coaching close by in Houston. And with Alozie’s twin citizenship, the timing couldn’t have been extra good. She earned her first cap with Nigeria shortly earlier than formally becoming a member of the Houston crew—a second that was, for her, as a lot about private id as skilled achievement.
“Rising up, I used to at all times assume I wasn’t American sufficient, I wasn’t Nigerian sufficient as a result of I don’t communicate the native tongue. It’s so fulfilling to put on the crest [and] have ‘Alozie’ on the again of my jersey. To do this for my dad and mom and my household was such a proud second for me,” Alozie says.
That have of taking part in for Nigeria was a strong affirmation of her roots. For Alozie, it wasn’t nearly competing at a world stage; it was about lastly feeling like she belonged to each worlds. “It made me really feel actually Nigerian,” she says. “Now, I am going to Nigeria each different month, and it seems like part of me I didn’t essentially know was lacking.”
This debut was just the start. By 2024, she earned a spot on the roster for Nigeria’s Olympic squad. As thrilling as the chance was, the Olympic expertise didn’t come with no trace of disappointment for Alozie. Her crew was stationed in Bordeaux, removed from the Olympic Village and the thrilling chaos of Paris, watching the opening ceremony on a TV display screen like the remainder of us. Regardless of the gap, the load of the second wasn’t misplaced on her. The Tremendous Falcons had lastly certified for the Olympics once more, a feat that hadn’t been completed since 2008, and Alozie was there to contribute to that historical past.
Again in Houston, Alozie is understood for her versatile taking part in type and valued on her crew for her unusual capacity to grasp a number of areas of the pitch.
“She’s a participant of many abilities, and he or she’s very lucky that she doesn’t actually slot in one field,” says Jane Campbell, goalkeeper for the Sprint. “A number of instances, gamers are caught in a single field and might’t actually get out of that. However I believe as a result of she might play offense and protection…it’s tremendous useful for her. She will be able to play wherever within the discipline, possibly even goalkeeper,” Campbell provides with fun.
Alozie’s star continues to rise within the metropolis, not simply as an athlete however as a task mannequin and a group determine. Her two careers are a balancing act, and he or she has made no signal of selecting one over the opposite anytime quickly. The place one world calls for the bodily and psychological rigor {of professional} sports activities, the opposite pulls her into the quiet, methodical self-discipline of medical analysis. And but, in each arenas, she’s motivated by the identical driving power of creating an impression.
