Back on the Soccer Field Again
SOCCER AFTER COVID
Last year, after my family was vaccinated and life after COVID finally started to feel more normal, I needed to become physically active again. I chose soccer because I had played soccer before I moved to California and knew I was good at it. Plus, I felt safer being outside post-COVID. Friends from my high school suggested I join them on our local AYSO U19 team.
Joining that team was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I never missed a match all during the regular season, and I enjoyed meeting new people and learning more about the rules of the game. I’ll never forget the feeling of scoring my team’s very first goal. It felt good to contribute.
But the biggest lessons I learned were positivity and sportsmanship.
TEAM SPIRIT
You might be surprised to hear that I loved that experience even though our team never won any of our games last year. Not a single one.
We played hard, through heat waves, with no substitutes, and against teams that had twice as many players as ours. We suffered injuries. I even had to go to the ER once after a game because of serious knee injuries from the turf when I got fouled intentionally.
Still, we never gave up. What I liked best about my team is that we came to each and every game expecting we just might win. We always gave it our best shot, and even when we felt discouraged we would rally and stay positive with each other anyway, from start to finish.
OUR BEST DAY
I remember one game in particular when I could tell my teammates were starting to feel down about the way the game was going against us. During an extra water break, we needed because of the extreme heat I started reciting famous lines from “Cobra Kai” to get everyone amped up. We lost anyway, but I will never forget the shocked looks on the other team’s faces when they saw that we were still having a great time even though we were losing, badly.
BACK TOGETHER AGAIN
I joined the team again this year and was happy to see that so many of my old teammates decided to come back, too. In my first game of the season I scored a hat trick and had an assist. Then I played goalie and blocked a shot. That game was our first win and it felt amazing. The next time I played we won again.
It always feels great to win when you've worked so hard at it. But the most valuable things I have learned from my experience playing soccer with my teammates and losing are sportsmanship, what it means to support one another in hard times, and resilience. Some of our best games last year were the ones where the other team would allow some of their players to switch sides to help us when we didn't have enough players show up. Then we would scrimmage, just for the fun of it. Some of those opposing team members have now become my friends, too.
Those are the things I enjoyed most and these are lessons I will remember forever about playing soccer with this particular group of friends. I really enjoy playing and see myself continuing to play for fun even after high school and on intramural teams in college.