Deborah Abiodun came onto our radar when we interviewed Randy Waldrum for the Raising Her Game docuseries. His insights helped us explain aspects of the player pathway for young women in the United States and how it contrasted with that of their counterparts elsewhere in the world. It also included discussion of the role university-level soccer plays in that pathway. He offered an example of a player he had coached on the Nigerian national team who had asked him to come play for the NCAA Division I team he coaches at the University of Pittsburgh. That player was Deborah Abiodun and Waldrum talked about her desire to play college soccer showed an uncommon vision for her own long-term future.

We showed her the segment and RHG Director Rush Olson asked her to comment on it in a subsequent interview. Here’s a transcript of the session, lightly edited for clarity. You can watch the whole interview on video as well and stream the docuseries for free on Victory+. The section featuring Deborah Abiodun and Randy Waldrum comes in Episode 3.

Rush: Randy Waldrum talked about how you made the decision to come and go play at the University of Pittsburgh. And you just got to watch that. Tell me the story that he talked about and how you figured out that “Yeah, maybe college would be a good path for me?”

Deborah: Yeah, firstly, I would like to thank my coach, Coach Randy Waldrum. He’s definitely a big part of my success and big part of my story. Living in Nigeria, playing college soccer, my part down here. He is definitely someone that has a very big and huge impact in my life and so watching that made me feel so excited and I’m so grateful and I got to take that opportunity to go to college because, like he said, most of the young girls from where I’m from don’t really have the opportunity to go to college while playing soccer. It’s mostly you choose one or the other. You either go to school and forfeit your dream of playing soccer or you go play soccer and don’t have the opportunity to get a degree. But here it’s quite different, because you get the opportunity to do what you love to do and also get the degree to kind of set you up for afterlife.

Rush: So Deborah was coached by Randy Waldrum at the University of Pittsburgh. He also coaches the Nigerian national team and she (Deborah) did very well. She made All-ACC a couple of times and that’s a pretty good soccer conference. How did you feel like that experience, being able to go to college, has helped you both on the pitch and off of it?

Deborah: It was a big-time difference because the education system is different and the way studies are being learned here is very much different. Even the playing style is very different from that of Nigeria. But I think I owe it all to all the people around me, my professors, my athletic trainer, the coach, my teammates – everyone was so helpful helping me to transition into the US soccer life and also being a student-athlete. It was really, really by them and I was able to transition well. The most challenging thing was the weather because, it’s very warm back home. So adapting to the cold in Pittsburgh was something I struggled with. So they would help me, provide me with hand warmers and I had four layers of coats when I just got to college, but it was a easy and good transition for me and the experience has been so awesome and I’ve learned other people’s culture. I’ve learned to adjust well. I’ve learned that you just have to do it regardless of the challenges and it has been a fun experience for me back home and also here in Pittsburgh, here in Texas. Everywhere I’ve been to, everyone has been great.

Rush: I’m from Texas I would have been the same way. I would have needed a lot of hand warmers. So now you play for Dallas Trinity FC. She was, is, on loan from the Washington Spirit of the NWSL. How is that experience? Because one of the things Randy talked about is getting to go to a maybe a bigger club or a more prominent club. How did that experience of playing in college help you get to a place like this?

Deborah: Playing in a school like Pittsburgh and being coached by Coach Randy Waldrum, he is a very good person outside of soccer and he is a great coach on the field as well. So I feel like his impact has really helped me and playing in the World Cup as well and the Olympics really, I would say, pushed me out there and playing alongside my teammates in Pittsburgh, we were able to make the ACC Tournament the first year I was in college and played alongside great players like my teammates back in college. It’s really helped me and shaped me to become a better player and I feel that has pulled me out there to the US soccer league and it is a very big opportunity to be signed by Washington and also being loaned to Dallas. I’m really grateful for the journey because I just like to experience all the other and enjoy it and play, so after soccer I have a good story to tell.