Sophie Geohagan fell in love with sport of wakeboarding a little more than a year ago, and has overcome adversity to sit on top of the standings of the Alabama INT Mini Outlaws division.

One day a little more than a year ago, Sophie told her parents that she wanted to learn how to wakeboard.

“We were talking about getting a boat one day and out of the blue she tells us that she wants to learn how to wakeboard,” her father Mark Geohagan said. “It was a sort of just out of blue, but that was that. We got the boat and she has been riding ever since.”

The young wakeboard star wants to prove that anyone can do anything they put their heart into.

Sophie was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia in her left eye and completely blind in that eye.

“She can only see out of her left eye,” Mark said. “When she goes heel side, she can’t really see anything in front of her, but it’s something that she has never let stop her. She isn’t scared of anything. She has done some face plants and got up crying a few times, but she has never once wanted to get out of the water. She really just loves the sport. We are very proud of her.”

Sohpie said that for her, she just loves the sport and any sport with a board for that matter.

“I just thought it looked fun and wanted to learn,” Sophie said about starting wakeboarding. “Now I love to wakeboard, skate and surf.”

After deciding she wanted to learn, her parents got in touch with Straughn High School student and wakeboarder Colten Meeks.

“Whitney taught Colten at school and asked him one day if he would like to give Sophie some lesson,” Mark said. “Once they started, the bug just really hit her and she has been on the water nearly every day since then. I’ve never seen someone get so into something so quickly, but she really does love it.”

At 6 years old, Sophie is the youngest wakeboarder in Alabama’s INT league.

Sophie began competing in the 8-and-under Mini Outlaws division at the beginning of season.

She has won the top prize in two of the six stops this year, and has placed in the top three at each stop.

The Alabama INT League has six stops throughout the summer, and Sophie has placed in the top three in all five stops this season.

After five stops, Sophie leads the Mini Outlaws division in points.

“She has really done a great job competing,” Mark said. “She is the youngest person in her division and she goes up against girls and boys. We have one more tournament in mid-August, and if we do good in that one, we will be heading to regionals in North Carolina.

In her last tournament, Sophie came in third place, but she wasn’t happy about it.

“I didn’t like finishing in third, so I decided to come home and practice every day to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Sophie said.

Besides just becoming a professional wakeboarder one day, Sophie also hopes to teach others how to do it.

“I want to be a professional wakeboarder one day,” Sophie said. “I also want to teach others how to wakeboard. I’ve already taught my mom how to. Now I’m trying to get my grandmother and little sister to try it out.”

Sophie recently received her first sponsorship from sheshreds.co, which is wakeboard clothing company that helps get girls into the sport of wakeboarding.

“Her mom bought some stuff for Sophie on their website and then posted it to Instagram,” Mark said. “Not long after, they contacted us and asked for her to be an ambassador.”