Soccer Season is in full swing

I never played organized sports growing up.  Aside from a few school teams when I was in middle school I never played any sports.  I guess they were out there but we lived in a small town and there weren't many options.  You could play hockey, ringette or figure skating in the winter and ball in the summer.  And that was it! I mean I barely recognized that other sports existed until I moved to the bigger city.  But by then I was not interested in being sporty, I was interested in boys.....

So when I got to university I started dating this guy who introduced me to soccer, a sport I had always admired from the sidelines.  When I first started going to the all girls school a few girls were on this city soccer team and I so wanted to play but I really had no idea about it, so when I got the opportunity to play for fun I was pumped!! And I loved it! I loved the running the fast pace movement on the field and the camaraderie that exist on the field.

Then I moved to Red Deer and lost all my sports contacts and I spent a lot of time trying to get myself into a mindset and acceptance of living in Red Deer.  I mean Red Deer is great, but it was a change and all my best friends lived back in Saskatchewan so there were a few years when I was like, "I should just move back, I should just move back," but I stuck it out, made some new friends and well the rest is history.

In 2014 my friend posted on Facebook that her indoor soccer team was looking for new players. I inquired and ended up joining her team.  This was 11 years after I had played my last Rec League Soccer at the University of Saskatchewan.  I started out playing defence and I was good with that, it wasn't a lot of running but it was enough that I felt really workout afterwards.  I had great team members and I tried to ensure I was always taking all suggestions and advice to heart and applying it the next shift or game.

I remember when Tanya told me to just go for the ball and not back down, and I started doing that, not worrying that I might steamroll someone or might get hurt.  I also remember when she came up to me after the first time I was being more aggressive on the field and her compliment that I was doing great going after the ball.

Now I am playing in my fourth season (2 indoor, 2 outdoor) and I love the team and the sport!! It's great I can feel my speed improving as well as my ball handling skills.  I know I could use more practice and if I want to get even better I should practice with Chandler just dribbling and passing the ball which maybe something we do here this summer.  But I know that the person that showed up the Wolfpack's first indoor practice of 2014 is not the same person that plays today.  I am playing forward and I almost scored my first goal this season and I am forever grateful I answered the call for more players 3 months after having my youngest baby!!