Watching the tenacity with which Seattle Reign midfielder Sam Meza plays — she’s never afraid to go in hard for a tackle and closes down on opponents with an intensity you can feel from the stands — it might surprise you to know that she was a quiet, shy kid growing up. This contrast caused Meza’s mom to put her in soccer in the first place. She saw how much her daughter came out of her shell when playing with her cousins in her grandma’s front yard.
“When I first started, I was a pretty shy kid, so the idea of being around other little kids and having to interact was a little scary for me. I remember my mom telling me that I would run up and down the field crying and looking at her,” Meza shared with Ride of the Valkyries after a preseason training session at the end of January.
With continued encouragement from her mom, Meza stuck with soccer and discovered how much she loved being free on the ball. The first team she joined in her hometown of Dallas was a co-ed side named Cruz Azul—a nod to the Liga MX team in Mexico City. Meza became a fan of the Liga MX club by default, but her dad’s side of the family were Club América fans, Cruz Azul’s rival.
“I would always be like, ‘Boo América.’ It’s funny because literally more than half of my family cheered for them.”
While Meza would continue to improve and fall in love with the game, she didn’t initially see a path to the pros for a young girl like her.
“Growing up, I didn’t really necessarily watch women play because I am Hispanic. My family would watch Liga MX, and I also played with boys growing up, so I just didn’t really have a look into what it could be like playing pro as a girl. Honestly, I didn’t know that there was a national team. I didn’t even know what that space looked like.”
In the mid-2010s, Meza joined the Dallas Kicks in the National Girls League. That’s when others began to notice her talent. After the San Diego Surf Cup in 2016, Meza received a call-up for the U.S. U-15 Youth National Team, and that’s when she began to see a pathway to the pros.
A few years later, Laura Harvey called up 18-year-old Meza for the U-20 Concacaf Championship. She played alongside current national team stars like Trinity Rodman, Naomi Girma, Sophia Smith, and Mia Fishel, scoring in a 9-0 win against Cuba. The U.S. won the tournament and advanced to the U-20 World Cup, which was unfortunately canceled due to the pandemic.
This exposure led Meza to the University of North Carolina, the most decorated women’s college soccer team. The midfielder thrived under coaches Anson Dorrance and Damon Nahas, earning 72 appearances and recording seven goals and 10 assists. However, to understand Meza’s impact when she’s on the soccer field, you have to look beyond the statistics. She was the fulcrum for UNC.
“Defensively, she is one of the greatest midfielders I’ve ever coached,” Dorrance said during Meza’s junior season, when she was named to the First Team All-ACC and Third Team All-America. “She might be the best player in college soccer right now because, when she’s out there, no one can touch her. She basically takes the game by the throat and says, ‘Give me the ball; everyone, get out of my way.’”
Spending so much of her childhood watching Liga MX matches helped Meza develop this flair and confidence with the ball, which she describes as a “very Latin style. I like to have the ball on my feet. I like to drive at people. I like the creativity of it all, the freedom of it all, the fluidity of it all.”
After a successful college career, Meza entered the NWSL Draft. The Reign were interested in the UNC midfielder, but general manager Lesle Gallimore suspected she would be selected well before their first pick at 27. When Meza was still on the board after the first round concluded, the Reign sent $125,000 in allocation money to the Chicago Red Stars to get the 17th pick and select her. While the Reign wasn't necessarily on her radar because of their late draft pick, Meza was thrilled when they called her name.
“I was super, super stoked. I had never been to Seattle, so that was cool – being in a new place, in a new environment.”
The midfielder admits that while the coaching staff and players were incredibly welcoming, this new environment shocked the system.
“I had no idea what I was walking into,” Meza told Ride of the Valkyries. While UNC was one of the most competitive environments, she realized she was still a bit nurtured in college and needed time to adjust to her new reality as a professional.
“There’s just different aspects that play into being a professional and being in the pro environment. It’s a different level of professionalism, and honestly, I’ve learned that it’s really dependent on you and how you navigate yourself. I was very, very raw. I just had a lot to learn and a lot to grow within this space. I am someone who needs to experience the environment and learn what works for me.”
In the summer, just as Meza was settling into a routine, she also struggled to find game time behind attacking players like Jess Fishlock and Ji So-yun. At this point in the season, the Reign were struggling with conceding goals — not creating chances — which limited the rotation at Meza's position.
That's when Chris Petrucelli, general manager of the Dallas Trinity in the newly formed USL Super League, reached out. The two knew each other from Petrucelli’s involvement in the Dallas soccer scene when Meza was growing up. When he presented a chance to get minutes in Dallas, Meza took a risk and jumped into this new environment.
“Playing and being relied upon and being the figurehead for a team was going to be really important for her,” Harvey said when asked why the Reign thought this loan was the right move for Meza. “It was also about figuring out what being a professional looks like when you’re having to play every week.”
While loans are always risky, Meza thrived in her time at Dallas. She played 1,168 minutes and led the team in shots. Like her days at UNC, she was also a key part of Dallas Trinity’s defense and possession game. Meza averaged 44 passes per game and maintained an 83% pass completion rate while winning a team-high 22 tackles and 111 duels. She also scored two goals and assisted one. Most importantly, Meza got the opportunity to regain her rhythm.
“I always tell people I’m a feeler, and what that really means is I need to be in those environments, in the game, to kind of get my flow back. When I play, it’s very much a flow. I don’t think, I just do. For me to be able to replicate that in practice, I needed to get games. The biggest thing was playing minutes, but also just giving me some time to learn a little bit more about myself and who I am.”
Her hometown offered that opportunity, and with more time to find that flow, Meza became even more impressive as the season progressed. She was named the November USL Super League player of the month, and one commentator called her the league MVP for the fall season.
Now back with the Reign in preseason training, Meza feels ready to take on the NWSL. Harvey has already noticed her renewed focus and sharpness, as well as how much more settled she is.
“Sam looks great. She looks fit and ready to go, which was exactly what we wanted the loan to be. She’s matured and developed as a person. I think she now knows who she wants to be. That’s the thing I love about my job, just seeing the journey of how people function — not just as footballers, but as people. And Sam’s on a really interesting journey right now. I think she’s finally figuring out what works for her, and that’s the most important thing.”
Harvey is excited for Meza to have more opportunities to show the league why the Reign traded up to draft her last year. The 23-year-old midfielder, Harvey said, can make things happen when she receives the ball between a midfield and backline.
“What makes her special is in and around the mid to final third, getting in behind a midfield and up against the back line. And the final product — the final pass, cross, shot, whatever it might be — that’s where I think she’s most effective. We just weren’t able to get her in those positions enough last year. We always felt she could play a little bit quicker, but until you’re experiencing it, you just don’t know. So going away, doing that, experiencing it, she’s come back in, and you can just see those little things are really starting to come to fruition.”
Last year, Meza told the Latin Times that she didn't have many professional players who looked like her growing up. Heading into her second professional season, Meza is giving young Latina girls another success story to emulate. She has pretty simple goals for herself this season: get more playing time and help her team out in any way that she can. If that gets the attention of the U.S. or Mexican national teams, even better. Watching her dear friend Croix Bethune thrive last year gave Meza a lot of joy and motivation.
“I’m hoping that at some point in my career I can, whether it’s this year, whether it’s the next year, whenever it is, I hope that I can also follow her steps a little bit.”
