Frankie Lopez Profile

Frankie Lopez Profile

By: Alexander Rozas

When you picture a star soccer player’s life, you might imagine them attractive, popular and smart. However, soccer star Francisco Lopez was depressed, bullied and during his professional career was riddled with sports anxiety. Now he helps kids who are going through the same mental problems he did.

Lopez remembers that the peak of his soccer career was in his senior year of high school where McMinnville High School made the finals.

“Before that, not many people came to the games, but during the finals over 4,000 people came to support the team,” said Lopez. The game ended with McMinnville beating the powerhouse Jesuit 8-7 in a penalty shootout.

It was a dream come true.

“Winning the State Championship was the best feeling of my life and I haven’t been able to replicate that feeling or experience,” said Lopez. “It really brought the community together.”

Lopez ended up bringing the trophy home with him and slept with it for two-three weeks.

“The athletic director gave me an ultimatum saying that if I didn’t bring the trophy to the next assembly celebrating the victory, I wouldn’t be able to graduate,” said Lopez.

Once Lopez graduated he had the choice to go to any Ivy League school because of his soccer skills and intelligence, but he chose to go to the University of Portland and stay close to family.

There he had a rough time.

“I was forced to try and get to know my teammates, and personally I didn’t want to choose all of them as friends. They drank and smoked a lot, and I was a devout Catholic.”

After a fantastic two-year soccer career at the University of Portland soccer team, Lopez left for Mexico and played in the city his parents grew up in.

In Lopez’s club dream he was bullied and developed depression and sports anxiety. Lopez remembers being called a gringo (someone who has Mexican heritage who was born in the U.S.), being judged for acting differently, wearing different style clothes and speaking with an American accent.

During one practice Lopez broke his leg.

“I always believed in God’s Plan. When I broke my leg the first thing I did was look up to the sky and said I trust you and this is only a test. I wouldn’t blame God or anyone else, it was just a moment in time.”

“During the drive to the hospital the adrenaline wore off and the pain started to kick in. The road was super undeveloped and all I could feel was pain,” said Lopez. “It felt like the driver chose to drive over every bump on the way to the hospital.”

Lopez said that going to the hospital was one of the best things that happened to him. The staff there gave him plenty of attention and asked how he was. His family never asked him about how he was mentally but instead how soccer was and perks of being a professional.

After recovering, Lopez decided to come back to the U.S. where he spent time playing in New York, Orlando and Seattle. He then went to El Salvador to play soccer where he caught malaria, which put him out for another year.

Lopez had a year's worth of time to recover and decided to coach. He remembers falling in love with coaching and he retired from professional soccer and established an academy in McMinnville. He wanted to give back to the community what he learned about being a professional soccer player.

He credits how he approaches coaching to when he first broke his leg.

“I don’t believe breaking my leg was intentional, but I do believe that the mindset that I obtained after breaking my leg guided me toward being a selfless person and being a servant of the people, a coach and a mentor.”

Now Lopez is a coach at Lincoln with several goals.

“I want to help bridge the gap between person, student and athlete. How to serve the holistic person over the player and to establish healthy and effective coping methods for players.”