Typically, students who yearn for travel, to see the world with their own eyes, choose to do so after high school, or even after college graduation for that matter.

Well, for 15-year-old Sedona resident Cassie Sanchez, there’s no better time than the present.
Entering her sophomore year at Sedona Red Rock High School, Sanchez recently returned from a two-week excursion in Brazil, where she played for a soccer team called the Independence.

Made up of players ages 15 to 18 from all over the United States, Sanchez was the only player selected from Arizona.

Just two years ago, Sanchez was a part of a soccer group from the U.S. that traveled to Holland and now Sanchez adds Brazil to the “places been” map.

In Brazil, Sanchez played in a soccer tournament called the Zico Cup.

Zico, or Arthur Antunes Coimbra, a former Brazilian coach and former footballer who is considered one of the best dribblers and finishers of his generation, puts on the tournament every year for young soccer players ages 11 to 18.

Zico is known to many as the “white Pelé” and is considered one of the top players ever to play the game.

In this tournament, Steve Sampson, a former U.S. national men’s soccer team head coach, was tournament director, something Sanchez picked up on right away.

“I know who he is, and it’s great to be around someone like that. He wasn’t any one team’s coach; he was everyone’s coach during this tournament,” Sanchez said with a big smile.

Besides playing soccer every day around great past and present soccer players for 14 days, Sanchez learned a few other things as well during her stay in Brazil.

“We got to learn the samba dance, and we got to see the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio [de Janeiro], which was amazing,” Sanchez said.

Upon her return Sunday, Aug. 1, Sanchez could barely contain her excitement regarding all the new adventures she had experienced during her time in South America.

At home in Arizona, Sanchez plays club soccer for the Verde Valley Vitality and for the Scorpions at SRRHS.

Although Sanchez’s knee was injured for almost all of her freshman season of soccer last year, she plans to play this season for the Scorpions.

“The people on my trip were really different. They were all very nice and it was great to meet new people, but I’m glad I’m home. School starts soon and it will be good to get back to regular things,” Sanchez said.

Her biggest thrill of all in Brazil, as Sanchez likes to tell it, was scoring the first goal of the tournament in the Zico Cup, something she will never forget.

“It was the coolest thing. I hope to get to do it again sometime,” Sanchez said.

For now, Sanchez will hit the books for the next nine months, but a trip to France, Italy or Greece is on the horizon for her next summer, and she’ll just have to decide which one to do, knowing full well that most kids her age only read about the places she’s been.