On a team full of good soccer players, Riley Thompson tied a West Lauderdale girls soccer school record with 29 goals during the Lady Knights’ 2015-16 state championship season — as a seventh grader.

Now, the high school freshman is continuing to make her presence felt, albeit on an even bigger stage. Thompson has attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, since her eighth-grade year in hopes of further developing her soccer game. 

The decision for Thompson and her parents to move her almost 700 miles away from home wasn’t easy, but Thompson is no ordinary soccer player. She picked up the sport at age 3 in the Meridian Youth Soccer Organization and was playing travel soccer at age 8. IMG discovered her when she was a sixth grader thanks to an injury of all things.

“After she made the Rush Soccer nations team in sixth grade, she broke her leg on a zip line that June,” Thompson’s father, Brent Thompson, explained. “We had to find something to do to get her skills back, and IMG was the only place that offers multi-week camps. She did a three-week camp there.”

That’s when IMG first began recruiting her to join the school, but Riley Thompson’s parents wanted her to hold off until at least eighth grade. Following her state championship seventh-grade season, Riley Thompson had been taking classes at West Lauderdale Middle School up until the October of her eighth-grade year when IMG again made a pitch for her to come to Bradenton.

“We left within a week,” Riley Thompson said. “It was sudden, but I had been wanting to go for three years.”

Riley Thompson had been playing travel soccer in Birmingham, Alabama, that was part of the Elite Clubs National League — a travel soccer league focused on developing female players — but she said traveling 2 1/2 hours away so often didn’t make sense when she could get top-notch training at IMG while living in Bradenton.

“It has all the tools you could possibly ask for,” Riley Thompson said. “You go to school from 7:45 to 12:20, then at 1 you have classes or weights, then soccer. There’s nothing missing. It has everything you can ask for to be the best, and the people there all left home and all want to be the best.”

Brent Thompson said he and his wife, Sandra Thompson, both feel like they made the best decision for their daughter, but it’s never easy to send your only child to boarding school when she’s only in eighth grade.

“It was a life-changing decision,” he said. “It’s the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make, and it still is. To have her away, it’s a tough one, but she’s chasing her dream, and it’s worth it.”

The decision is paying off. IMG is part of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which is considered the highest competitive girls league in the nation that only features 78 total girls in the United States. Though she doesn’t turn 16 until September, Riley Thompson plays in the U-16/17 division and is currently ranked seventh in the nation in goals scored in that division with 17.

“I’m very blessed and humbled,” Riley Thompson said of the accomplishment. “I’ve worked so hard, and that’s all I want, to be the best, so I’ll have to keep working hard to be No. 1.”

Her coach, Jake Provan, said Riley Thompson isn’t just a skilled forward, she’s also an excellent teammate.

“She’s awesome,” Provan said. “The energy you see in the game is the energy she brings in every training session. She’s very competitive by nature, and me being competitive, I like it. She’s serious about it, but she seems to have fun, and she brings both of those things, which is a great example for all of her teammates. She’s a forward, but I could use her anywhere on the field when I need to, and she’s happy to do it, which is leading by example.”

Riley Thompson plans to attend college to play soccer, but the ultimate goal is even bigger: making the US. Women’s National Team and helping them win a gold medal in the Olympics and a World Cup.

“It would mean the world to me,” Riley Thompson said. “All I want to do is be on the national team, win the Olympics and the World Cup. That’s my No. 1 goal, and that would make me happy.”

Provan said her ceiling as a soccer player is high.

“She’s going to go somewhere special,” Provan said. “I know some top universities are interested, and as long as she maintains the same work ethic and desire, she’ll be good for a program. Whoever gets her, it will boost that program’s ability to succeed.”

Brent Thompson said he couldn’t be more proud of his daughter, and he hopes the positives outweigh any potential pitfalls that being away from home has.

“It’s a feeling of accomplishment, that all of your sacrifices are well worth it,” Brent Thompson said. “Being away from home at 15, you wonder if she’s learning all of the right things, so it’s a double-edged sword.”

She may be far from home, but Riley Thompson said she hasn’t forgotten where she’s from.

“I still talk to my friends, and I’ll never forget everyone who helped me,” she said. “I’m very blessed to come from this town and to go to something as amazing as IMG.”