Not a lot of people can say that they have Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant as a mentor.
In fact, a lot of people would probably wilt at the thought of having the notoriously intense Bryant as a confidante and teacher.
Sydney Leroux is not one of those people.
Leroux, the 24-year-old United States women's national team striker, was once described by U.S. women's manager Jill Ellis as "the most competitive person I've worked with, mentally and physically."
It's no surprise then that she's unafraid to keep a pretty consistent dialogue going with the enigmatic Bryant.
Kobe has unofficially taken the young soccer player under his wing, after initially sending her an email a couple of years ago telling her that his daughters were big fans.
Since then, the two have become close. Bryant brought his girls and their soccer team to one of Leroux's games. Leroux now acts as a spokesperson for a Body Armor sports drink that Kobe invested in.
These days, he sends her text messages like, "I was willing to sacrifice anything but not compromise," and "Question I want you to think about in detail: Why are you going to be great and how are you going to get there?"
That's heady stuff right there.
Leroux, like Bryant, grew up outside the United States. Bryant's father played basketball in Italy. As a teenager in Vancouver, Leroux realized that a future in soccer lay in the country to the south.
"I made the decision pretty young," she recalls. "I was 14 years old. No one really was like, 'Oh my God, stay here, please.' I kind of just left and that was it. I saw the US as the best team in the world and that's what I wanted to be a part of. It was purely ambition."
Leroux hasn't had an easy road since leaving home. She barely speaks to her father, ironic since he forms the American half of her heritage. And there were times during her teen years, bouncing around the U.S. and living out of a suitcase, that she second-guessed her decision to leave home and questioned her love for soccer.
But her strength of character and will, another trait she shares with Bryant, saw her through.
At age 20, Leroux made her national team debut, and in only her second start, scored five times against Guatemala.
So far, through 56 national team games, she has 32 goals. In her first year as a full-time starter, she averaged 2.43 goals per full game.
Leroux attributes a large amount of her monumental early career success to her relationship with Bryant.
"When I have a question, I go to him," Leroux says. "I get to pick his brain on how he became who he was and what it took to get there. We have a really cool relationship. I look up to him so much as an athlete and a person. I think he sees something in me. He knows my story of how I grew up and what it took to get here and I think that a big part of him really respects that."
