Leawood native Parker Roberts set to begin under-20 World Cup journey

In class at Blue Valley North last year, Parker Roberts thought for a moment she was being scammed.

Roberts had received an email on her phone, inviting her to the U.S. women’s national team under-20 camp. She was the star midfielder for her high school soccer team and had participated in the Olympic Development Program for youth players. Still, staring at the words in front of her, Roberts thought surely someone was playing a joke on her.

“I didn’t even think it was real,” she said. “I called my mom, and she said, ‘Are you sure this is even real?’ I’d wanted it for so long. I’m just a girl from Kansas, and when it finally happened I was just in shock.”

Despite the surprise at the beginning, Roberts — a Leawood native and Blue Valley North grad — has consistently been invited back to U-20 camps.

Since that first email, Roberts has 15 caps at the U-20 level, 10 starts and a goal. Her time with the squad has included trips to Spain, Australia and Honduras.

She’s in Papua New Guinea now, one of 21 on the roster for the U-20 World Cup next week. The U.S. will kick off group play Monday against France.

A redshirt freshman at Florida, Roberts is using much of what she learned from a lifetime of playing soccer in the Kansas City area to chase the dream of one day joining the senior national team.

At BV North, Roberts was all over the field. Her coach there, Tim Wiseman, relied on her primarily as an attacking midfielder, but could also use her as a forward or defender. Wherever she was, she flourished.

“This is a weird thing to say, because we always wanted to have Parker on the field, but sometimes we played better without her,” Wiseman said. “Girls would just kind of stop and watch her and wouldn’t be involved as much. They were just in awe playing with someone like that.

“You only get a chance to coach someone like that every so often.”

Roberts, 19, impressed at the local club level, too. Her coach with the KC Metro Dynamos, Derek Shoare, calls her, athletically, the best player he’s coached in more than 20 years in Kansas City.

“She’s a great box-to-box player because she plays both sides of the ball so well,” Shoare said. “Not only does she defend incredibly well and she’s physical and she tracks people down. But on the ball, she can play really great balls, and get in vital areas in the penalty box.”

Still, the journey wasn’t always easy. Roberts admits she can be shy around people she doesn’t know, and sometimes felt like the “odd one out,” being the only one from Kansas in national team camps.

She got a negative evaluation for one of her very first camps, with coaches telling her she needed to improve tactically to stay at the national level.

When she trained a couple of times with local National Women’s Soccer League team FC Kansas City, she got “smoked” by midfielder Heather O’Reilly, who’s had her an illustrious career with the senior national team.

“At first, I was just overwhelmed,” Roberts said. “But I kept getting invites back (to national team camp) and started to feel comfortable in that environment. I just always kind of had a gut feeling that this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Her biggest opportunity yet on a global scale will come in the next week. Coming off a torn ligament in her ankle, Roberts has the chance to not only make her return to the field, but make an impact on the biggest stage she’s been on: a World Cup.

“You try to take it day by day, but the World Cup has been on my mind for a while,” Roberts said. “I just want to help them win in any shape or form, whether I’m on the sideline or on the field, at whatever position. I have goals to one day make it to the full national team. I have a lot of work to do, but if I keep on, I think I could fit in there one day.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Leawood native Parker Roberts set to begin under-20 World Cup journey."