Julia Narmore isn’t afraid of challenges. The recent Burroughs High grad earned a 4.2 grade-point- average even though she commuted to Burbank from the Santa Clarita Valley throughout her educational career.
Her parents work in Burbank and her mother is also a Burroughs grad, which made it easier for them with all things considered.
Now Narmore is moving on to college to play soccer. But unlike many others, she won’t be playing in the U.S. Instead she is moving in September to Newcastle, England where she will play for Northumbria University.
“They had an ID camp here in L.A. They like traveling to the states to recruit American players. I have a profile online and they saw my video and reached out and said they were very interested,” Narmore said. “I know the UK is far away and my family is here but the offer that was presented to me was something I didn’t really want to turn down. I haven’t heard a single bad thing about studying abroad.”
Narmore, 18, wasn’t sure if college soccer was in her plans. She got accepted to schools like The Ohio State University, the University of Alabama, Michigan State and Louisiana State.
Instead she chose the more difficult path by choosing to play football, as it is known in many parts of the world and continue her career.
She plans to study Business Management at Northumbria and finish college quicker than most of her classmates at Burroughs.
“I get my bachelor’s degree in three years compared to four. That’s one of the differences,” Narmore said. “I can only play three years in their program as opposed to four.”
A four-year varsity team member at Burroughs, Narmore said many of Northumbria’s players are ironically American, though she said most are from the East Coast.
“I’ve talked to some of the players, and they’ve had an amazing time,” said Narmore, who most recently played for LA United Elite 64 at the club level.
One other noticeable difference from college in the United States is that her soccer season will last nine months.
But Narmore, whose main position is as a midfielder, is ready for that challenge.
“Even in high school I was like this is not enough soccer time,” she said. “I want to play more. It is constant working out, but I love working out. It will at least keep me in shape so I don’t stop working out. I always want to be in shape and so at least I’ll know that I’m consistently in shape the entire time I am over there.”
Narmore’s mother, Linda Matsuoka, said the opportunity her daughter had to play under coach Brady Riggs was a great one, especially after Julia tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee as a freshman and did not play.
“He had her on the bench next to him the whole freshman year until she got better. He could have easily said you can’t play, but he said you are part of the team, you are part of the squad. You are here with me,” Matsuoka said. “That meant the world to us to have her included as a player.”
