Anri Sahakyan is a senior from Yerevan, Armenia, who is attending Glendale High School.  Anri has been the star of the school’s varsity soccer team for his fourth straight year now. Some of his hobbies include watching sports, hanging out with friends, and playing chess.  

Anri has been involved in soccer from a very young age, when he played for a famous Armenian-based club, Pyunic FC, for seven years before moving to the U.S. at the age of 13. 

Anri got into soccer so long ago in his childhood that even he can’t remember the exact age.  “It felt as if I was born to fall in love with soccer,” he said. Fortunately, he was not the only person interested in soccer in the Sahakyan household, as his older brothers and father were also big fans of the sport.  

Looking back, Anri remembers the intense debates he had with his friends and family members, watching numerous victorious nights behind the screen for their favorite club, Real Madrid.

Despite the current status of his soccer career, based on the complete shutdown of high school and all of its sports programs, Anri is now a proud member of a well-known soccer club, Real SoCal, where he has been playing for a little over 6 months now.  The team is currently getting ready for league games, but it has some friendly matches ahead of them before the season begins. 

Even though his high school season has come to a halt, Anri is still hopeful and optimistic about a return. He feels really good about the team, due to the fact that the team is in a great balance of experienced, returning players, along with wide-eyed freshmen and sophomores who are eager to win.  

In addition, Anri notes that their coach, Brandon Weisman, is very hardworking and dedicated in putting his players in the best possible scenario to win.  Anri also believes that everyone on the team has one ultimate goal, which is winning the CIF championship. 

It turns out that not only is Anri a great soccer player with immense potential, but he also has a hidden talent and passion towards another sport, which is chess.  At some point in his life, he thought about continuing playing chess on a more professional level, before realizing that soccer suits him better.  “However, it is still nice to have the trophies and certificates that I won because of chess, as a reminder of my other interests,” he said.  

Overall, Anri Sahakyan is one of the hardest-working athletes out there, who also gives a great deal of attention to his academic life and maintains a high GPA every single year.  Even though he has a packed schedule between all the practices and school work, Anri makes sure to also hang out with his friends and have fun, which according to him is “very essential in life.”  He and his friends try something new most of the time when they are out, but “Armenian traditional dishes will always have a special place in [his] life.”  

Finally, Anri thinks that covid-19 has turned everyone’s life upside-down and forced everyone into a new way of life, with a new set of rules that no one would ever think would happen.  However, he is optimistic about the future and is assured that everything will be back to normal soon, because humanity is moving towards the right direction, along with learning a valuable lesson that we should not take anything for granted. 

Anri sees himself in 5-10 years playing professionally, in a world class soccer club, surrounded by the people he loves and cares about the most.