She’s just 12 years old, but Demi Gonis, who eats, drinks, breathes and sleeps soccer, has already achieved one of her major goals in life: qualifying to play for the California Youth Soccer Association’s ’97 U13 Olympic Development Program Northern California State Soccer Team.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “My heart was pounding. When I heard the news, my heart just dropped and I felt big joy.”

If there’s a soccer gene, Demi surely possesses it. Her mother Tammy and her uncles all played soccer, and her father Dino trained her from an early age. “One day we took her out and she had the natural ability,” he said.

Tammy said, “I thought it would be a really good sport for a girl – she fell in love with it. From the moment she was on the field she said, ‘I am going to be a professional soccer player some day.’”

“She trains seven days a week,” said Dino. “She will put a timer on the oven for 30 minutes and do footwork. She just loves the sport. Her room is all soccer posters. She’s really worked hard to get to where she’s at. She does train with the Freedom boys varsity team. Coach Martin (Contreras) took Demi under his wing last year. The drills, the footwork, the passing, the shooting, she’s in there with the big boys.”

Demi, who holds a black belt in karate, said her strengths include “good ball control, vision, talking, shooting the ball and just positions.” One of the things she enjoys about the sport is “meeting new friends, playing with my friends.”

Although she’s in seventh grade at Bristow Middle School, she doesn’t play for the school team. Instead she plays for Konfusion in the East Diablo Youth Soccer League, which played for the state championship title last weekend.

Making the Northern California State Soccer Team was a long, involved process that included two tough weekends of tryouts in June, followed by practicing with the team for two weeks and two more tryouts competing against more than 200 of the best girl soccer players in her age range in Northern California.

The coaches were looking for several skills: ball control, knowing how to move to set up a scoring opportunity and communicating with and motivating teammates to move into the correct positions for scoring. Demi will be training with the team in Morgan Hill, Ripon and Sacramento, and next year could be traveling to other states to represent California in soccer matches.

As if all of that weren’t exciting enough, Lumpy’s Diner in Antioch has created a Reuben sandwich in Demi’s honor, the Deminator, which Tammy affirms “is absolutely delicious. As Demi’s mom, I am so proud of my daughter for always giving her personal best, never giving up on her dream and reaching for the stars. This is a huge accomplishment for such a wonderful young girl. Both her father and I are absolutely thrilled to see our talented daughter make it this far.”

Asked what she’d like to say about all of it, Demi responded with advice: “Just follow your dreams. Practice hard, work hard. And if you have a dream, follow that dream, because it might come true some day. My goal is to play with the Women’s National Team.”

Before she gets that far, however, she’ll likely spend four years at Heritage High, helping kick the Patriots’ soccer program to a higher level.