Day after graduating, this Tri-Cities teen flew to Mexico to play pro soccer
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sanchez declined more than 15 U.S. college soccer offers.
- Sanchez signed a one-year contract with Cruz Azul's women's team.
- Sanchez plans to study marine biology while pursuing soccer with Cruz Azul.
Months before graduating from Chiawana High School in June 2026, standout soccer player Lindsay Sanchez turned down offers from more than 15 colleges across the United States that wanted her on their teams.
She already knew what her next step would be in pursuing her dream of playing professional soccer: moving to Mexico, the country where her parents were raised before settling in Pasco in 2003.
“Since I was little, my parents have always taken me and my siblings to Mexico to see my grandmother and to see family down there, where my dad is from, Sinaloa,” she said. “I’ve been here so many times to the point where I feel it’s my second home.”
Sanchez, 18, has played for club teams across Washington and California since she was 9, pursuing a passion that began when she was just 4 years old, watching her father, brother and sister play soccer on Pasco fields.
The years she spent playing club soccer eventually translated into success at Chiawana High School. Sanchez helped the varsity girls soccer team capture three consecutive Mid-Columbia Conference championships, one of the state’s most competitive high school leagues.
When graduation was approaching, driven by her dream of one day playing for Mexico’s national soccer team, Sanchez signed a one-year contract with the women’s team of Cruz Azul, one of Mexico’s four largest soccer clubs.
“I really enjoy the level of soccer in Mexico. It’s very competitive and that’s something I’m really excited about moving forward,” she told the Herald in a phone interview. “I could achieve that in the United States, but I feel like I have a better chance to do it here in Mexico. My roots are part of the reason I enjoy being in Mexico and why I chose to come here.”
The day after graduation, on June 7, Sanchez’s father drove her to Seattle, where she boarded a flight to Mexico City.
Since then, she has been preparing for her first official match with Cruz Azul’s women’s soccer team on July 18. Cruz Azul will play it’s first game against Queretaro soccer club.
Her local coaches say it’s not a path they often see in Tri-Cities.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve done this for 25 years. I’ve been pretty successful at helping girls get to college,” said Saul Mendoza, Sanchez’s former personal trainer. “That’s always been my main goal. But Lindsay is the first player from this area that I’ve coached who has signed a professional contract.”
Mendoza was part of the first soccer team at the Three Rivers Soccer Club, the largest and oldest competitive youth soccer club in Southeastern Washington, according to the club’s website.
He began his coaching career at just 16. Since 2004, he has worked for the Pasco Police Department, where he currently serves as a school resource officer and firearms instructor.
He spends three hours each weekday coaching children and teens who aspire to play soccer.
Path few Tri-Cities players take
In recent years, Pasco high schools have seen many of their graduates go on to play soccer at first division and second division colleges across the United States.
Fewer of those players are women, and the number becomes even smaller when it comes to female athletes who go on to sign professional contracts, said Pete Tensmeyer, Chiawana High’s girls coach.
“It’s very unique to see somebody from the Tri-Cities, especially a smaller community, end up signing professionally with a big club,” he said.
He said the more common path for young players is to compete at the college level before earning an opportunity with a professional club. That was the path Summer Yates followed. The Chiawana grad played four years at the University of Washington before signing with Orlando Pride professional soccer club in Miami.
Hope Solo, a Richland High grad who also played for the UW Huskies, went on to play professionally and is considered one of the top female goalkeepers of all time, helping the U.S. win the 2015 FIFA World Cup and two Olympic gold medals.
In the United States, high school soccer alone does not always attract the attention of professional teams or top level colleges.
To gain that kind of exposure, Tensmeyer said, players often need to compete for club teams based in larger cities such as Seattle or Spokane, a commitment that requires both strong family support and significant financial resources.
“And then the pressure (is another barrier),” he said. “I’ve seen it with many girls who are top-performing athletes who had dreams of playing in college, but by the time they get to those final years in high school, they’re burned out.”
Sanchez knows that process well. Between the ages of 5 and 14, the Pasco-born teen trained and competed alongside boys in YMCA leagues, an experience she said helped make her faster, stronger and more aggressive on the field.
Although she remembers hating it at first, Sanchez eventually grew comfortable playing with boys and even came to enjoy it.
“I never really got scared to go up against a guy,” she said.
But another experience later in her soccer career nearly pushed her away from the sport altogether.
“It was my freshman year of high school,” she said. “I injured my back really bad. I could have fractured my spine and lower back due to playing soccer ... I did have moments where I didn’t think that the soccer world was for me because it was just really hard.”
A few years after recovering from the injury, Sanchez sought out Mendoza to help her train during her senior year, when she also led the team as a captain.
Mendoza initially suggested training once a week.
“But Lindsay is one of those girls who says, ‘No, I’m serious about soccer, this is my passion’,” he said. “So she actually did two and three sessions a week, which I really don’t do with very many kids.”
From Pasco fields to Mexico
Cruz Azul learned about Sanchez through international scout Leo Mejia, who first invited her to compete in a tournament in La Ensenada, Mexico, when she was 15.
“We took her there, and they won that tournament,” Avigail Sanchez, Lindsay’s mother said. “After that, she started going to Copa Mazatlan, Copa Chivas and Copa Xolos. Eventually, he told her, ‘Lindsay, you’re ready. You’re ready to sign. You don’t need a tryout anymore.’”
Sanchez didn’t hesitate to accept the offer.
Now, her days begin at 5:30 a.m. as she prepares for two to three hours of training with Cruz Azul’s U-19 women’s team.
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When there are World Cup games, Lindsay gets together with her friends to watch them.
While pursuing her professional soccer dream, she is also planning continuing her education by studying marine biology, a career she has loved since childhood.
“I really want to study sharks and the ocean,” she said. “I want to study the sand, the coral, different fishes. I want to make sure the ocean is safe since it’s going pretty bad due to the environment.”
