Meet Anessa Campos, Deaflympics Champion and A Fair Shot Ambassador

Recently, we (digitally) sat down with a rising star, Anessa Campos. Campos is a midfield/forward for California State University Northridge in her second year who is blazing all kinds of trails at her young age.

Campos is a deaf player and A Fair Shot’s newest ambassador. In our interview, we picked her brain about her career thus far, her ambassadorship, and her hopes for the future. 

You were a two-sport athlete in high school; what made you stick with soccer over softball?

I originally started with T-Ball / Softball at the age of four. All I knew was softball, and I even played club. I started recreational soccer around 11 years old but didn’t know much about it. All my friends played, and I wanted to try something different from what I knew my whole sports life! I ended up joining club soccer a year later, in eighth grade.

During freshman year, I knew I wanted to try out for both and made both Varsity teams. It was the busiest year for me ever. My Varsity softball coach was also a club coach, so we worked as hard as we could as a Division 1 softball team. I would go to club soccer practice after softball with black under my eyes and completely exhausted!

After the end of softball season, I remember my coach saying I needed to pick one sport to dedicate the time the sport deserved. It was honestly an easy pick, even though soccer was new for me. I loved being on the soccer field and the challenge it brought me. I don’t think anyone, especially my family, thought I would pick soccer. But, I still wonder what would have happened if I stuck with softball.  

Do you remember how you felt when you were first named to the U.S. Deaf Women’s National Team, and how does it feel now as a medal winner?

I started training with the USDWNT when I was 15 years old, working hard physically and mentally while traveling to attend their training camps throughout the year.

I was in the player pool for a couple of years, and when I finally got the email saying I had been rostered to the team, I was filled with so many emotions. It was beyond exciting and I was ready to represent my country.

Being a Gold medal winner now feels amazing. All the hard work my team put into training paid off. Bringing home that medal to my hometown was the best feeling ever. 

You’re clearly doing amazing things with your position as a college athlete. How does being deaf impacted your journey to where you are now?

Being a deaf athlete hasn’t been easy, especially playing in a hearing environment. Many people don’t realize I am deaf/hard of hearing. I have to tell them I am. At one point, I had to ask a coach if that would affect my recruitment decision. Thankfully I was welcomed with open arms.

It is not only hard on me but also affects my coaches and teammates. They cannot easily communicate with me. I am blessed to be surrounded by the most amazing coaching staff and teammates who have patience and understand my disability.

I am a visual player, and they know this. This means I have to put in more effort to compensate for what I cannot hear. This makes playing on the field a bit tricky, but I do not allow it to define or determine what I am capable of. My opponents don’t know I can’t hear, which I love, and we play the way the game is supposed to be played. 

You’re now an ambassador for A Fair Shot. Tell us a little bit about your role.

My role as an ambassador for H&R Block’s A Fair Shot campaign is to represent female college athletes and level the playing field in NIL. By taking on this role, I can contribute valuable insights to the disparity in NIL. As women, our platform is small, and H&R Block has provided an opportunity to contribute on a national platform and allow us to use our name, image, and likeness to champion female athletes in the NIL space. 

What are you hoping you can help A Fair Shot accomplish, and what are you hoping they can help you accomplish?

I am hoping I can help this campaign accomplish more equal opportunities for women in NIL while closing the compensation gap. I am happy to be a part of this campaign which is also providing college athletes an amazing service and information to understand the implications of our NIL deals when it comes to taxes. Helping to bring awareness to athletes in general about NIL is huge since it is still so new for many of us.

I hope the A Fair Shot program can help me continue to grow. Through this opportunity, I hope to continue to bring awareness and promote change for female college athletes as well as promote more NIL opportunities for us all who are in it together.

What’s the best advice you ever got, on or off the pitch?

The best advice I got on the pitch is to play the game I know how to play and not to worry about the “what ifs.” Off the pitch, I heard I could do or be anything I wanted to and never let my disability define me.

What’s one thing you want the world to know about you? It could be your favorite hot take, some words of wisdom or inspiration, whatever you want to tell us.

The one thing I want the world to know is that no matter what obstacles one faces in life, they have the ability to keep going and finish strong. For me, not being ashamed of who I was, along with hard work and determination, got me somewhere with soccer. It started with believing in myself and telling myself I can do anything I put my heart and mind to. Today I hope my story can inspire others.

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