Susie Petruccelli’s Raised a Warrior is a Remarkable Memoir About Women’s Soccer
New York Youth Soccer News: Raised a Warrior is a historic look at the inequities of girls and women playing soccer. A powerful look at women in soccer by Susie Petruccelli.
When Susie Petruccelli became the captain of Harvard University women’s soccer team, she felt on top of the world—talented, strong and worthy. Yet after sustaining injuries and developing health issues, she felt her worth slip away. In her remarkable book, Raised a Warrior, Susie reveals how she battled her way back onto the field and continued to fight even after she hung up her cleats.
She distills the significance of not giving up on yourself and inspires players of all sports who’ve faced injuries to persevere. She also brings to light the inequities and discrimination female athletes face that she’s traveled the world to see and document firsthand, and introduces the international athletes and activists fighting for equal pay and conditions. In doing so, she reveals the progress made, as well as the battles ahead in leveling the playing field.
Raised a Warrior, from Apollo Publishers, is the winner of the Vikki Orvice Prize and has been praised by sports stars including the iconic Billie Jean King.
Susie, a Manhasset resident, coached her daughter Madi in the Manhasset Soccer Club and founded Kick Start Soccer Academy with her sister-in-law Teresa Petruccelli Weston, who also founded the Auburndale TOPSoccer program. Her other kids Luca and Marco also played in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) as her children have been having fun on teams in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL) and the New York Club Soccer League (NYCSL).
Susie, a native of Southern California, met her husband Armando Petruccelli at Harvard when he was competing on the Crimson men’s soccer team. Armando grew up playing in the LIJSL and Eastern New York’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) teams. Susie’s father-in-law Giulio Petruccelli has been inducted into the Halls of Fame of Eastern New York and the LIJSL.
She is also producing a documentary, “Warriors of a Beautiful Game,” about the state of women’s soccer around the world with Kely Nascimento, Pelé’s oldest daughter, who lives in Queens and whose son plays in Eastern New York as well. The executive producers are soccer legends Pelé and Julie Foudy, pro soccer player Stephan Mbia and filmmaker Donald Rosenfeld. The film is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in early 2022.
You can pre-order Susie’s book, Raised a Warrior, by clicking on one of the following links: Amazon Target
Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association: With 100,000 youth soccer players–both boys and girls–and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) reaches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border.
