From a two-year school to a four-year university, Skyline Col­lege student athlete Midori Sera has demonstrated her soccer skills to show that she belongs at the next level.

The second year student at Skyline College has received an athletic scholarship to University of Tennessee-Martin, an NCAA Di­vision I school. Sera will prepare to transfer to the university after graduation this spring. She is the first women’s varsity soccer player to ever receive a Division I athletic scholarship at Skyline College.

Although a scholarship is in hand for Sera, the road to success didn’t come that easy. For a year and a half, including her senior year at Lowell High School, she sat out with a back injury that kept her on the sidelines throughout the varsity women’s soccer season. She was unsure about ever playing the game again until finding her own personal motivation.

“Having independently bounced back so far after a year and a half injury in high school kept me want­ing to improve and reach the next level of competitive soccer,” said Sera in an e-mail to The Skyline View. “It was a huge challenge to regain everything from my physical condition to my mental confidence, but seeing that step-by-step I was progressively improving.”

In addition to Sera’s passion for soccer, it is hard to deny her passion for her academics as well.

“Coming into Skyline, I was much more geared towards taking care of my academics,” said Sera. “I think the fact that Coach gave me a lot of confidence in the idea that not only could I do well at Skyline, but I could give myself an opportunity to play at a Division II or even Division I University made me think twice about giving up soccer competitively.”

Currently, Sera is a business major and will have completed 80 units of college work at the end of the spring 2011 semester. She is also a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society with a 4.0 GPA and has been an active participant in the MESA (Math, Engineering & Sci­ence Achievement) program that provides support and assistance to math and science based majors. She plans on pursuing a degree in Business with an eventual goal of completing a MBA.

In addition to her athletic schol­arship, Joe Morello, the Dean of Athletics at Skyline College, has nominated Serra for the National Alliance of Two Year College Ath­letic Administrators (NATYCAA) scholar athlete award. He believes Sera was a great asset to the team.

“Athletically, Midori was a stand­out on our women’s soccer team.” said Morello. “This year she was named the Team MVP, First Team All-Coast Conference, and NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Associa­tion of Ameri­ca) All-Ameri­can 2nd Team. She is the first All-American in the history of Skyline’s Women’s Soc­cer.”

The team will be losing nine sopho­mores in the fall and returning 13 players. Wom­en’s varsity soccer coach Kevin Corsiglia understands that this will be a different team without Sera’s presence next season.

“Midori is a leader by example, not words; her absence on this team will be hard to replace,” said Corsiglia. “I am very confident that Midori will do well at Tennessee-Martin; she has matured to a point where I know she is ready for the challenge.”

Aside from her athletic and academic achievements, Sera under­stands the challenges that lie ahead of her. She is currently preparing for Division I athletics by participating in a Women’s premier soccer league. She is also doing fitness and strength training on her own, as well as at Skyline.

“The whole thing is so sur­real because I never even imagined having this sort of opportunity,” said Sera. “Love for the game is something I can’t explain, but no matter how frustrated by and sick of soccer I may get, there’s something inside of me that always brings me back.”