Christa Camarillo grew up in a military family in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Although she was talented in soccer and academics, Louisiana was not a soccer hotbed. However, this did not deter her from dreaming big—of playing in the pros, national, and Olympic levels.
In fact, from as young as high school, she was willing to sacrifice her time and put in the work. The closest she could put her talents to work was in Baton Rouge—a 180-mile round trip to and from her home. It would be undoable for most, but she made the commute three times a week and on weekends to play for a traveling team.
This sacrifice paid off as she was recruited by the top teams in the country and ended up signing with Powerhouse NC State. Everything went on fine until she injured her lower back halfway into the season.
Christa Camarillo had to take the spring off to heal at home, where she could get more focused rehabilitation. Recovery was well on track, and on the fateful day of March 11, 1993, she decided to go to the local stadium to hit the track sessions. This would be a day she would wish to delete from her deep memory.
She had just finished her workout on the stadium steps and decided to hit the track when someone ambushed and brutally attacked her. He was a serial rapist released back to society on good behavior.
Barely conscious, she managed to get away and seek help after what seemed like hours. The police were able to arrest the criminal as they knew him well from his description. He would later go for trial and be locked up for life without parole.
After coming from the hospital, Christa puts all her energy into her recovery, working harder than ever.
All she could think of was winning the national title. Her performance was so excellent that she was put on the starting team in her sophomore year until a new coach switched her playing position, which affected her performance. Eventually, it led to her becoming a utility player. Coupled with the fact that they finished fifth, Christa felt her career was stifled.
Nonetheless, she played with the semi-pro teams during the summers. One thing she was proud of was that most of her college teammates were Olympic and world champions from the USA, Canada, and Norway, while she was just an unknown girl from Louisiana.
After graduating, she played for the semi-pro teams in Dallas, which later folded, and then she went to join a team in Chicago half through the summer. She left to focus on the pro combines and grad school. The year 2001 would be a game changer as it would be when the first women’s pro league would start. So, in 1999, she started preparing and training hard for the pro combines.
As she was on a training bike ride that fall, she got her second tragedy, which would wipe away her soccer dreams. Someone driving while on the phone knocked her, slamming her head with the windscreen. She sustained multiple fractures and lacerations to her skull and body, and life momentarily left her lifeless body.
Christa Camarillo’s Renewed Purpose
Christa Camarillo slowly picked herself up after a rough recovery that took months of jaw, wound, occupational, and physical therapy and counseling.
Through the pain, she still managed to fight her way through grad school and graduate as an outstanding student. She then worked at a local hospital, rehabilitating people’s hearts.
Here she found her new calling. These people were going through what she was going through.
They were watching their lives stopping, and their hearts were breaking (figuratively and literally). She, too, had watched her life stop and her heart and dreams torn to many pieces.
She learned empathy and retraining and successfully transferred these to her patients positively.
This marked her journey as a clinical exercise physiologist. Through the years, she has helped retrain patients recovering from heart conditions. She has also run her wellness and fitness company, Retrain LLC.
Currently, she is more focused on helping more people retrain their health, hearts, and struggles with alcohol. She is determined to help them live more meaningful and purposeful healthy lives like she did when she used her tragedies as tools to turn her life around.
Christa Camarillo hosts forums and meetings to coach clients on stress and the heart, risk factors and management, and habit/mindset change. She also consults for Reframe, a top alcohol reduction app.