TOWAMENCIN – Senior Lauren Ruth lives and breathes soccer. Her dedication towards her favorite sport pushes her past many obstacles in life to succeed, graduate early, and play soccer later in college.

Ruth’s passion and dedication to her sport is obvious, and it runs in the family. She’s had cousins who swim and run track at the collegiate level and she’s known for as long as she can remember, that she wishes to follow the same path. In her immediate family, soccer is a way of life.

“My whole family is a soccer-oriented family. My brothers play, so when we have a big game it is a big family outing. My grandparents even go,” Ruth explains.

Not only does she play soccer with her family, but she also plays for the club FC Continental in a league called ECNL, which is a national league. For school, she plays as a forward on the field, but in college she will be an attacking center midfielder. Before transferring to North Penn, she was on the varsity soccer team all three years and also was chosen for All Catholic every year at Archbishop Wood.

When sharing her feelings about her favorite sport, Ruth was not shy to speak her mind.

“I love the sport! I’m really competitive so I like to win. And I like how it’s team-oriented, so you can make a lot of close friendships,” Ruth said with a grin.

Although soccer was always a giant part of her life, graduating early came as a welcome surprise. When her coach approached her with the idea, it thrilled Ruth as she imagined herself a college soccer player, on the field sooner than expected. She was offered a scholarship to University of Delaware if she graduated early, and she accepted eagerly after a visit to the campus.

“It was really nice. I feel like when you get on the campus you can just tell how people present themselves. The coach is family oriented, he even has the team over for pasta parties. It’s not just about the soccer, it’s also about the social aspect,” Ruth shares.

Ruth’s journey is triumphant, but it involved a major setback last year when she got compartment syndrome. She had a large blood clot in her leg that began to expand until she required surgery after a major artery broke.

“I had nineteen stitches, seventeen staples, two blood transfusions, and fifteen metal clamps in my leg to keep everything together,” Ruth describes.

Yet, if you saw Ruth today, the only indication of a previous injury is her scar; she is playing soccer just as well as she ever has, but only because of how hard she worked on her recovery.

“I had to learn to walk again and how to do everyday things. I was in the gym seven days a week to get back. I would go from speed training to lifting to soccer skills just to try to come back,” Ruth looks back on her road to recovery.

It was not easy for her, but Ruth persisted and kept her scholarship, along with still being on track to graduate from North Penn High School on January 25th. During her short time at North Penn she has already made a lasting impact on the high school as a friendly, hardworking young woman, who follows her dreams.