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.