By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
A former soccer standout at Cair Paravel and Emporia State is pursuing a lifelong dream as a member of the Guatemalan national team. It’s been an arduous journey for the 2019 high school graduate, but her determination and faith have been rewarded.
Former Cair Paravel and Emporia State soccer star Hannah (Woolery) Mondi celebrates a big play for the Guatemalan national team. [Submitted photo from Hannah Mondi]
Hannah Mondi née Woolery played her first game with the Guatemalan team on December 1, a 4-1 win over Bermuda in Guatemala City. She will play three matches in the coming months that could lead to a berth in next year’s eight-team Concacaf Championship, which will ultimately produce four of the participants in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil in 2027
“I talked recently to my brother about it because I remember when we were little kids watching the men’s World Cup in Brazil (in 2014),” Mondi said. “That was the first one we were old enough to soak in and understand. And now I’m playing in qualifiers to play for a World Cup in Brazil. Little me would be just overwhelmed and would not believe that I actually got to do that.”
Mondi was born in Guatemala and spent the first six years of her life there before moving with her family to the United States. The daughter of Cair Paravel soccer coach Doug Woolery helped transform the Topeka private school’s team into the state title contender it has become, then enjoyed an All-American career at Emporia State, where she remains the college’s all-time assist leader.
Hannah (Woolery) Mondi (back row, left) said that playing for Guatemala's national team is an "overwhelming feeling.'' [Submitted photo from Hannah Mondi]
“Playing in Guatemala for the national team is just a very overwhelming feeling,” said Mondi, who retains dual citizenship in both Guatemala and the U.S. “Guatemala means so much to me. That’s where I was born. That’s where my first memories are. That’s where I got married. So it’s always had such a special place in my heart.
“I couldn’t believe it when I got to step on that field and see my relatives in the stands. All my mom’s family is down there. They had a big banner with my name on it. That was the first time that I got to play in front of them. I had about 30 people come to the game. It meant so much to be able to represent them. Especially my grandpa. He played for the Guatemalan National Team when he was younger, and he’s such a big soccer guy. I know it meant a lot for him to see me play for Guatemala.”
It’s an accomplishment that could easily not have happened.
In the spring of 2022, while a junior at Emporia State, Mondi tried out for the Guatemalan national team and was told she had a spot. But before she was able to complete the qualification process, the coaching staff was relieved. By the time the next group of coaches were ready to bring her down, it was in the heart of her fourth college season. She declined the invitation because she didn’t want to miss a critical part of the season.
Next up, Mondi tried to join a professional club in Austria, but they wanted her to come in the spring of 2024, when she was student teaching to earn her degree. She considered that offer seriously, but ultimately decided not to delay her graduation. Still, the prospect of playing in Europe was a motivator.
“After I (committed to) the Austrian team, I was practicing with a goal. I had a team to go on,” Mondi said. “But probably two weeks before I was supposed to go to join them, they told me that they were just going to recruit European players for that season. I had spent that whole summer preparing (to play in Austria), so obviously that was kind of a blow.
“But I realized through it that I still had the dream and I still wanted to play. But I had no knowledge of how to get in touch with teams and how to put myself out there. I was on my own and I thought, 'I will just keep on practicing and keep trying.’ But that takes a lot of physical and mental toughness to do that, practicing and working out by yourself without any motivators.”
Her next offer, in December 2024, was equally poorly timed.
“I ended up finding an agent. He wanted to put me a Mexico team. But their season started the same week that I was going to get married. I said, 'I want to get married and I want to enjoy my wedding,' ” said Mondi, who married January 10 of this year. “We had all these things planned. The coach told my agent he would think about bringing me in later, but he didn’t respond.”
Newly married with a degree, it would have been easy to think that the soccer door of her life had closed.
“It’s been so difficult to keep the dream alive,” Mondi said. “It was a series of ups and downs, but God is faithful. Without that keeping me going, I probably would have given up a long time ago. But He provided an opportunity finally and it felt like a big answer to prayer. If I hadn’t gone through all that, I wouldn’t be the player that I have become.”
To permit herself the opportunity to pursue a soccer career, Mondi works as a substitute teacher in Lawrence, De Soto and Eudora. She credits her husband, Caleb Mondi, a football player at Lawrence High School and Emporia State, with helping her stay on track during those challenging stretches.
“He’s been so supportive and great about it,” Mondi said of her husband. “There have definitely been times when I say, 'Maybe soccer isn’t it. Maybe I should just give it up.' And he said, 'No you should keep going.'
“He really understands the discipline of it all. He knows my training is really important. He knows when I need to push or when to lay back.”
In 2025, Mondi tried to re-insert herself into the pipeline for the Guatemalan national team but would have to try out with yet another new group of coaches. That opportunity finally came in October. She went for a tryout, then was asked to stay to help the team prepare for the Central American Games.
“They asked me to stay for another week to bond with the girls even though I wasn’t eligible to play on the team back in October,” said Mondi, who watched four of the team’s Central American Games matches. “It felt kind of like a college recruitment trip. You practice with the team and do everything they do, but I wasn’t on the roster and couldn’t suit up for the games. They wanted to see how I melded with the girls.”
With her knowledge of Spanish and familiarity with the country, Mondi connected quickly with her new teammates.
“We were confined for 15 days together and we didn’t really leave the compound,” Mondi said. “They were so welcoming and so kind. A lot of the girls are actually American in some capacity. I’m the only American who was actually born in Guatemala. So there are a lot of English speakers.”
Joining the Guatemalan national team involved a position change for Mondi. Primarily a midfielder in college, she is now seeing action at forward.
“For one thing, I’m considered tall on this team. I’m not used to being picked as one of the tall girls,” the 5-foot-5 Mondi said with a laugh. "I think I do have an attacking mindset. But it is a little bit different because when I get the ball, my back is to the goal as opposed to bringing it up as a midfielder. But I really do enjoy playing forward.”
Hannah (Woolery) Mondi is playing forward for the Guatemala national team after playing midfielder earlier in her career. [Photo submitted by Hannah Mondi]
Mondi will play three more games in the preliminary stage of the 2026 Concacaf W Championship, which features 29 Member Associations – excluding the region’s two highest-ranked nations (the United States and Canada). At the conclusion of the Concacaf W Qualifiers, the six group winners will join the United States and Canada in next year’s eight-team Concacaf W Championship. That event will determine the participants in both the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 and the 2028 LA Summer Olympics.
Mondi will go to Guatemala in February for the national team’s second game, February 28, against Granada. She will then accompany the team to its third game, versus the Cayman Islands, on March 6. After a brief return to the United States, she will join the team for its fourth game, at Costa Rica on April 18.
