How soccer has changed my life.

Playing soccer all of the years that I did, didn't only make me successful as a soccer player. Soccer has really changed my life in so many positive ways. If I never started playing when I was a little girl I would definitely not be the person that I am today.

Playing soccer has made me stay fit and healthy, because basically all you do is exercise which after I exercise I never want to eat anything unhealthy it just doesn't sound very appetizing. You also always have to be in shape for soccer unless you want to be benched because the coach isn't going to play someone who can't run for more than two minutes. This made me want to run and practice a lot in the off season so I wouldn't become fat, lazy and out of shape. So basically what I am saying is I would probably be a lot unhealthier if I hadn't played soccer.

Soccer has also definitely kept me out of trouble because it took so much time out of my life. There were times when I hated soccer because I could never do anything with my friends. We would be gone almost every weekend downstate playing in a tournament or a game. Even on the weekends where I would have home games I couldn't go out the night before because I would have to get rested up and wake up early to play my game. We would also have practice three times a week in Traverse City which was a half hour drive for me. I basically only had two free nights a week. It became very frustrating at times but I loved soccer and I couldn't just stop playing. All of the hours that I put into soccer really kept me out of trouble because I was never bored and I always had something to do. I know for a fact that I would have gotten into trouble if I hadn't have played. What do you do with all of that extra time? Exactly, that is why the people who don't do extra curricular activities are more likely to get into trouble because they have nothing better to do. On my club soccer team we had to sign a contract saying that we would stay drug and alcohol free or we would be kicked off of the team. That also made me second think things when that type of situation came up.

There are many other reasons how soccer has changed my life but those are the two that I chose to write about. I thank soccer so much for keeping me a healthy person and keeping me out of trouble. I could be a complete different person today. If it weren't for all the sustained weekends downstate that sometimes consisted of playing in the pouring rain to come home with a loss and all of the the extensive hard practices doing uphill sprints until I could barely walk that we had to participate in, chances are I could be a drug user or even worse in jail, although that's just worst case scenario. Thank you soccer for everything you have done for me. You were a pain in the butt at times but I wouldn't trade you for the world you really made me into a semi decent human being, on a good day :)

Is soccer really that boring?

Many people who haven't had the experience of playing soccer often say that it is extremely boring to watch. When people tell me that I wonder how they could think such a fun and carefree sport could be boring. People at school would also say that only "pussies" play soccer and that football is a real mans sport. That's how it even is in movies, it's always the big tough guys that play football and the little wimps play soccer that everyone makes fun of. That is the picture that a lot of people have of soccer players and I couldn't disagree with it more.

Soccer is a very difficult sport to become good at. It takes many hours of practice and hard work because it is all with your feet and normal people don't have naturally gifted feet with a soccer ball. On the other hand when it comes to football you basically have to be big and I don't think it takes nearly as much practice as soccer. So therefore I think people should give soccer players more credit than they are given.

Many parents and kids also think soccer is extremely boring to watch which is why you will always see hundreds of people at high school football games and not too many at a high school soccer game. I personally find soccer really fun to watch especially if they are good because I learn so much from watching and I feel like i'm playing. I love watching soccer now that I have stopped playing it because it brings back a lot of memories and makes me miss it. That is the closest thing I have to staying somewhat into it.

I think that the reason people find it to be a "pussy" sport is because they really don't know what it takes to become a successful soccer player and all of the hardwork they put in. I think that people find it so boring to watch is because they can't relate their lives to it and they don't understand it. Just by watching one soccer game certain things that players do while I watch, bring back so many good memories of all of the years that I have palyed soccer. People who haven't had soccer experiences can't do that so therefore they think its boring.

Coaches

Having a good coach in soccer is very important. You can either end up with a really good coach or a really poor coach. I have had many of both in my soccer career.

My first soccer coaches were pretty much all parents of the kids on the teams in AYSO and just did it for fun. They were basically there just to watch the kids and make it fun and they didn't really know much about soccer. I didn't learn much from them but they are the ones that got me really into it so I thank them for that. One of my coaches that I had in elementary school took things way too seriously for our age and would tell the kids inappropriate things about their level of play. many kids ended up quitting because she was sucking the fun out of everything and when you are younger that's what it is all about.

In middle school the coaching was much better because when you become older you need more help to fully develope your skills. In middle school I played on the middle school co-ed team and my coach for that team was really good and knew exactly what he was doing. he was a former college player and had alot of experience with soccer. I really learned alot from him and taught me many basics about the sport.

When I reached highschool soccer I didn't have the best experience with the coach who happened to coach all four years I was there. When I was in ninth grade I had alot of knee pain and he would always tell me it was in my head and to just push through the pain. I ended up needing to get surgery from his stupid idea that it was all in my head. He would aslo make us run in sweat suits when it was really hot out to get ready for hot games and almost became fired because of it. I did not participate in these runs because I had an injury because of him. He would also be very rude and unfair to the players. There were two girls on the team that were his absolute favorites and would always tell us they were the best players on the team and to always get the ball to them. It hurt everybody elses feelings because we felt worthless and not needed. All of the players and parents had a very strong dislike for him and I am very glad I don't have to deal with his crap anymore.

I had the best coach of my life in club soccer. I learned more than any coach I have had put together. He taught me how to fix every flaw in soccer that I had and also taught me alot about life and how to be a good person. Everyone on the team loved him. He is the one that told me what to do with my knee when I told him what my highschool coach said and said I needed to get an MRI right away and to see a doctor. When I was done palying on his team I was devestated because he was such a great caoch and person.

As you can see the coaching in a sport has a great affect on people. I have had probably up to 15 different caoches throughout the years I have been playing soccer. Most of them were good but a small handful were very bad and I have learned from every one of them. Sadly I have learned even from the bad ones but more of what not to do.

Overcoming an injury

When you love a sport and all you do and think about is that sport then having an injury is probably one of the worst things that can happen to you. Unfortunately when I was a freshman in high school I had horrible knee pains which I soon found out that I had torn my meniscus which is a disk of cartilage that serves as a cushion between the ends of bones that meet at a joint. I thought my life was over, soccer was my life and a stupid tear in my knee was trying to take it away from me.

The doctor told me that I needed to get knee surgery and to recuperate from surgery takes months. I ended up getting the surgery at the end of the summer and I didn't play at all after I got the MRI to play it safe. I missed half of my high school season and that summer my club team went to Europe for a soccer tournament and I had to sit on the side lines and watch them play all of the European teams. It was horrible because playing against European teams was my dream and it all went down the drain because of my knee. After my surgery I didn't play for about 2 months and I went to physical therapy 3 times a week. When I finally started playing again my knee swelled up like a balloon and continued to do so after every time I played. Something wasn't right so my mom took me to the doctor again and he had told me that I retore it, would need another surgery and that I should stop playing soccer. I was extremely upset and I didn't know what do. I was only thinking the worst and figured my knee would never be back to normal.

I got the second surgery that winter and the recuperation process went much smoother than the first one. I tried palying indoor again which was ok at first but then my knee started swelling again. By this time I had had enough and was tired of sitting out. My mom stopped taking me to that doctor because whatever he was doing wasn't working. That is when I started going to a doctor downstate. The doctor I went to downstate was the doctor for the Detroit Tigers baseball team. He did not give me surgery but every 3 months he would inject some type of steroid into my knee to relive the pain and keep it from swelling. It ended up working like a charm. I still had pain now and then after that but nothing like before.

I ended up sitting out from soccer for almost 2 years because of my knee problem. I always wonder how much better I would be today if I would have never gotten injured. It was definintely a life changing experience for me because I had to learn to deal with the fact that the biggest part in my life was being taken away from me.

Playing on a boys club team.

One of the happiest days of my life was October 21st, 2004. The Suttons Bay middle school boys team was going to scrimmage the Northstorm select boys soccer team in Traverse City. They didn't have enough people so they asked me to come play in scrimmage with them. Knowing me of course I said yes. There was only one other girl who played on the team so I was excited to play with basically all boys. I knew we were going to get creamed because all of the Northstorm teams are very talented. When we arrived we did alot of stretching and jogging to get ready for the game, I was getting pretty nervous by that time. When the game started they dominated like crazy and no one on our team could get the ball away from them. In the second half of the game someone sent me a through ball and I ran like crazy and I dribbled it through the defenders and I ended up scoring the only goal for our team. The ending score was about 8-1 which was pretty embaressing. After the game the Northstorm coach called me over and said he was very impressed with my play and ability to keep up with his team and wanted me to play on his select boys team. I was speechless and I didn't know what to say it made me feel so happy after that because that was a pretty big deal. I ended up calling him and telling him I would play on the team. So now I was playing on a northstar team and a northstorm team at the same time! The first practice was beyond scary and nobody talked to me. We were training to get ready for an indoor tournamentat CMU. At the indoor tournament I ended up scoring two goals. Ever since then the boys learned to accept me because I showed them I could really play. The next summer we traveled to Minnesota for the U.S.A. cup. Since I was a girl I had to stay in a dorm with one of the boy's moms. We stayed there for about a week and it was an awesome experience. They had T-shirts there that said "iscored at U.S.A. cup" and I really wanted one but I hadnt scored yet. The first game we played there I scored 2 goals and I was so happy because I could get one of the T-shirts. When we were there we went to two pro soccer games. At the pro soccer game there was a half time juggling contest and the best juggler from each team could sign up for it. One of the dads on the team signed me up to do it. I was very nervous because we had to go out on the middle of the field in front of thousands of people. I didn't have on appropriate shoes so I had to borrow one of the mom's tennis shoes. There were only two other girls in the contest and the rest were boys. The two girls got out right away and I was still in. I ended up getting third place and my picture on the website. The next day there was another pro game and I entered the juggling contest again but this time I got fourth place. I was still very happy with myself even for trying in front of all of the people in the staduim. During this trip I got to know the boys team much better and they actually started talking to me. The coach was very happy with how well I started getting along with the team. I stopped playing on the boys team after that summer because it was becoming too much with playing on Northstar also. The boys were also becoming much stronger and faster so it was harder to keep up with them. Playing on the boys team was one of the best experiences that I have had. I was the only girl to ever play on a boys northstorm team in the history of TBAYS and the coach told me I was the only girl he would ever ask to play on his team ever. I am one of the very few people to have an experience like that and I will never forget it.

How I got into soccer

When I was a little girl I never thought I would ever get into any type of sports. I would watch my older brothers soccer practices and say to myself "wow that looks so hard I could never do anything like that". My mom ended up signing me up for an AYSO team that was co-ed without even telling me. I went to the first practice and I ended up loving it. I played on AYSO teams all of elementary school until I wanted to start getting more serious about it. In sixth grade I started playing on TBAYS because the coaching was better and the competition was much better. Playing on TBAYS for a year didn't cut it for me, I wanted more. That is when Northstar came into the picture, which is a club travel team in Traverse City. I tried out for the team when I was 12 but I didn't make it. I was very upset and felt worthless. After that I worked my butt off for the entire summer I went to six soccer camps along with taking private lessons every other day with a former college player. I was going to make sure that I made the team the next year. I did pretty much everything thing I could. I would practice in my back yard for hours everyday. I would practice juggling for hours and practice all sorts of moves until I had them perfect. Soccer was basically all I did that summer and in the winter I would play indoor at just for kicks. I was on three different teams sometimes just so I could get extra playing in. It sure paid of the next summer because I tried out for the team older than the one I tried out for the year before and I made it. The team I made was also ten times better than the one I tried out for the year before. I felt very accomplished after that because I worked so hard and I got exactly what I wanted. I played on that team for about four years and in the spring I would play highschool soccer which I loved just as much. In highschool soccer I was a varsity starter all four years and made all state my senior year. People would always tell me I had such natural talent in soccer but I disagree because I worked harder than anyone I know to get where I was. It was the drive and motivation that made me a successful player, and all of the the one on one hours with the ball. One of my favorite quotes is, "The Vision of a Champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, and the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching." By Anson Dorrance. I loved this quote because it really reminded me of myself and how hard I worked.