The music echoes around the soccer field.

La tierra de Borinquén

donde he nacido yo

The words are unfamiliar, in a language she doesn’t speak.

es un jardín florido 

de mágico fulgor.

But junior Kaylee Rivera sings anyway as she’s surrounded by her teammates — the people who have become her close friends.

del mar y el sol,

del mar y el sol.

The Puerto Rican U20s team sings “La Borinqueña,” the Puerto Rican National Anthem, before every game they play. Kaylee started playing on the team in February and has played in three games. Currently she is on call for the team

“Being with those girls, it brings [the Puerto Rican side] out more in me,” Kaylee said. “A lot of them speak Spanish, and I don’t, so I learned a lot through them. Learning that stuff is really cool.”

Being on the team came with struggles: some trainers only spoke Spanish. Kaylee grew up in America and when she started playing she spoke very little Spanish. There were times when Kaylee had to ask her friends on the team to translate. Her dad’s side of the family is from Puerto Rico, which is what enables her to play for the team.

“My grandparents taught me the culture as a young child,” Kaylee’s father, Ken Rivera, said. “They’d be so proud to see her on the field, playing for our country.”

Growing up, Kaylee played a variety of sports: softball, volleyball, track and basketball. Her family is full of athletes; her dad used to play basketball, and three of her cousins play soccer, including one who played with her on the U20s team. Something about soccer stuck with her: it could have been the style, or the relationships, but something made her want to keep playing.

“She’s very fast, very strong [and] very skilled,” girls soccer head coach Robert Vaughn said. “She reads the game well, and she’s [been] one of our best defenders this year.”

A few years ago, while she was playing with her club team in the national playoffs, someone from the Puerto Rican team was watching. That’s when her name was put into the pool of players for the under 17 years old team. This year, she got the call to play for the U20s. She played against the US Virgin Islands, Honduras and El Salvador.

“Whenever we play in different countries, that’s when [we] have more of a culture shock,” Kaylee said. “You see different parts of where you’re playing, like the Dominican [is] way different than it is here.”

Kaylee returned to finish out her season with the Hawks in March, but still remains in the pool of players eligible to be called up to the national team again.

“If the opportunity comes, I’ll definitely want to play [again],” Kaylee said. “I want to see all those girls again.”