My name is Amy Rebecca Wilder and I play on the Wolves AAU soccer team. No one calls me Amy though and I definitely don’t identify with that name…I go by Becca. In my family most people are called by their middle names and so I grew up as Rebecca which then my friends shortened to just “Becca”. I feel as if this name fits my personality so much more than Amy. When you think of a girl named Amy you think of someone super sweet and innocent, kind of like my best friend Gwen Joy (I call her GI-JO). She could be named Amy. I’m not saying I’m not nice, I’m just saying that I like to think I have a little bit of an edge to me which is what made me fall in love with soccer. I am super nice and easy to get along with if I like you, if I don’t or if you piss me off you better watch out. I am the youngest of 5 and all I have are older brothers, so naturally I grew up around a lot of rough housing. That being said, because I was the only girl in my house besides my mother I really liked to express my femininity. It makes me different from my brothers and I really like that. I also like when they look out for me, it’s where I get my protective personality from. Oh, also we’re Italian…enough said. 

 

I fell in love with soccer because of its fast pace, I find it really hard to pay attention unless I’m moving, so softball was definitely out. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 10 and my doctor recommended soccer (as well as medication) to get my energy out. My mom says getting me to go to bed after soccer practice or a game was night and day different than before I was playing so she kept me in it. I like to think that I had some natural talent too, which has kept me wanting to play and moving up to higher levels. I play defense mostly because I love defending my team. My position is Winger. It’s perfect for me and I knew that the first time coach put me there, I get to run around like crazy and I get to stop people from attacking my girls.

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I’ve always prided myself in being a loyal friend. My best friend Joy for instance, needs a lot of protecting. She is the youngest and smallest girl on our team and her parents keep her very sheltered from the world…she doesn’t even have a Tv…I don’t think I could survive without my E! News. 

I am also very protective over the people I love because I know what it’s like to lose one. My oldest brother, Anthony, was diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg when I was only five years old and he was sixteen. Out of Kyle, Liam, Joe, and Marion, Anthony was the brother I was closest to. Anthony was soooo excited to have a baby sister after getting four little brothers. As he was getting older he would tell my parents I was his insight to the female mind, I always thought that was hysterical. Needless to say, I was devastated when we lost him last year. By the time he was eighteen he was in remission and for the first time in a long time, we all saw the future ahead. We never expected the cancer to come back with such a vengeance eight years later. Just a few days after Anthony’s 24th birthday he fell down while we were shopping together in the supermarket. He said he got a shooting pain in both of his legs and couldn’t stand up. When we finally got word from the doctors at the hospital they told us his body had been riddled with new tumors. Then they told us he wouldn’t make it until the end of the year. I was determined to make the last year of his life one that would make him remembered for the many years he would be gone. I started a memorial Facebook page called “Anthony’s last leg” that reminisced on everything Anthony for the last year of his life. The Facebook page spread to Instagram and then Twitter. Anthony became the face for a positive outlook on a death sentence. So many people with cancer reached out to us and let us know how hopeful they felt life with cancer can be after seeing our page. Even after Anthony died I kept the pages going and try to inspire as many as I can that life goes on. I’ve alsooo slightly become obsessed with social media and the attention I get on it; most people say I tend to be glued to my phone. #sorrynotsorry