Collegian file photo.
Julia Leonard’s first interaction with a soccer ball was by accident, courtesy of her older brother Eric, when she and her mom picked him up from a birthday party.
Eric did what any young soccer player would do after seeing a ball on the ground. He kicked it, and ended up nailing his sister in the face.
He thought that Julia was crying because she got hit, but the headshot was not the source of the tears at all. The ball knocked her first tooth out, and she couldn’t find it.