Travel soccer is officially over and I seriously can’t believe it. throughout the past, idk how long I’ve been doing this, years, this team has been my rock and my safe haven from basketball and school and all of my stress. The team I played for went through a lot of changes throughout the years, but they were good and healthy changes. I never thought that the team I last ended with would be my literal second family.
The group itself is super diverse, a bunch of girls come from a bunch of different towns and go to different schools. At first, it was pretty difficult to work with each other on the field, but eventually we started clicking and we were making magic!
I can seriously never thank this team and my coaches enough for what they have done for me, not only as a player, but as a person. I have grown as a player immensely because of this team and the set of coaches I had training me and I couldn’t be more proud of my result. One thing this team did for me was give me confidence, and confidence like no other. The coach was unconditionally supportive, although he was super aggressive and negative sometimes, hearing his constructive criticism shaped me into the player I am today. the team also gave me an overwhelming sense of confidence. On the field I received waves of positive comments and criticism and it eventually led to my confidence within the sport of soccer. I would step on the field and be determined to play hard and play strong for my team, because my team deserved it.
I seriously just can’t put it into words how thankful and appreciative I am for this team. there are so many more factors that go into my love for this team, but it’s currently 2am and I need to get some sleep.
Throughout my struggles through basketball and school in general, I would come to practice and one of these amazing girls would cheer me up. these girls were amazing, added so much joy into my life and made it 10X better! I have grown so close with so many of these girls and to think it was my last time playing with them makes me want to cry, but I already did that enough this weekend!
to the best team a girl could ever ask for, thank you!
~Elsa
I remember when Elsa was in kindergarten playing soccer and I looked over at her on the field and saw her not paying attention and instead doing cartwheels. I turned to Jason and said, “maybe soccer isn’t going to be her thing”. Fast forward 12 years later and I am watching her be a beast on the soccer field including elbowing a girl during her last game and getting a yellow card (for the record I do not indorse that!)
Elsa did not want to play travel soccer. She wasn’t sure she wanted this to be her only sport as she enjoyed playing basketball and softball at the time (and maybe gymnastics and swim team too!) But when her rec team was no longer, we happened to stumble upon a local travel team in our town. This was the perfect fit for her as it allowed her to do multiple sports and yet compete more competitively than rec soccer.
I don’t think either of us would have imagined that the girls she was playing with would become such dear friends - many of which do not go to her high school. And I don’t think we would have imagined all of the tears that we would have cried watching them all take the field together for the last time this past weekend.
These girls stayed in hotels together, laughed and cried together, got yelled at from their coach together, never gave up together - no wonder there were so many tears.
And us parents? Well we had a blast too - complaining about the coach together (just sometimes lol), hanging out in the hotel lobby together at tournaments, bringing snacks for the girls and wine for ourselves, carpooling, cheering for each other’s daughter and even switching clubs this past year to keep them all together with their coach. This truly was an amazing group of girls and parents.
As Elsa continues to have more and more of “lasts” in her senior year, these will be the moments we cherish. And don’t worry if your little one is doing cartwheels on the soccer field...you never know what can happen (although I do recall Elsa saying once that she wishes we would have put her in competitive cheer :)
~Jen