Training for Shasta with Soccer...of all things

Soccer has become my saviour recently, providing the same sort of peace I find in the mountains. I started playing soccer when I was 6 years old and played every year until I was 24.  I unfortunately stopped playing soccer for about 15 years, until last year when I rediscovered the game and my love for it.  Soccer is something I do for me right now, and it is providing some great exercise as I train for climbing Mount Shasta in June with the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds.

  In Essex County, MA soccer was blowing up in the early 1980's and the communities there benefited in ways beyond anticipation.  This was a sport that welcomed both boys and girls from a young age and this was a new concept.  Unlike T-Ball, for which I made history as the first girl in my town to play and for which my father lost friends over, soccer was welcoming to all.  

Pretty sure I'm wearing Toughskins here, circa 1980. 

# 00, position: (way, way) Left Field

Suddenly, soccer was all I did.  There was a fall league, a spring league, and summer soccer camp at the local community college and eventually an indoor field was built on top of a hockey rink not far from home.  This was the jackpot for parents all over New England in childcare and exercise for their children.  By the time I was in middle school I was playing with all girls, and that was when I fell in love with the sport.  Looking back as I made my re-entry to the sport, I realize now that what I loved about the game most was how we brought out the best in each other as a team.  We laughed at our own mistakes but we were committed to improvement, and we encouraged each other, even when it didn't benefit us directly at the time.  We loved to see each other succeed individually and as a team and most of all, we loved to play the game of soccer.  

I played throughout high school and eventually landed at Unity College in Maine.  I discovered that the men's soccer team had a female goalie and realized I could play too.  After a season with the men, the coach approached me about starting a women's team.  This light a fire under me like I never imagined.  We recruited every woman on campus we could find and somehow pulled together a club team on a campus with NOT a lot of women.  It was the best season of soccer I ever had. The camaraderie was instant, the commitment was infectious and history was made.  The next year the team went intercollegiate.  I'm not sure I've felt that kind of accomplishment since.

Last summer I started playing soccer in Sandwich, NH where I now call hone, on Sunday mornings.  I was quickly reminded of what an intense workout soccer is.  Thankfully I had been running and hiking and each week it got easier to keep up.  The atmosphere in the town of Sandwich, NH on the soccer field is unmatched.  Most everyone who comes out to play is there for the fun of playing the game.  And every year during the Sandwich Fair the town plays the fair workers which is the highlight of the season.  

Sandwich, NH

Sandwich Fair

Since outdoor games came to an end around Thanksgiving when the field got covered in snow and ice, I was lucky enough to discover indoor soccer at Tilton Sports Center and signed up in a co-ed league as a free agent.  My team met on the first night we had a game, all having signed up as free agents.  I quickly discovered my teammates were fantastic.  Again, we are all there for fun and supporting and encouraging other to play the best game we can is part of that fun.  Getting older does have some benefits including caring less about winning and being able to laugh at yourself more...there's no shortage of that in Tilton.

Tilton Sports Center, Tilton NH.

Co-Ed League Night

No walls in Tilton

Women's Night 

After Session I at Tilton Sports Center, a women's night was added along with Session II of the leagues.  This has been the best addition to soccer for me in the past year.  I LOVE playing with women.  I've been taken right back to my middle school days with the giggles and encouragement, support and joy of the game.  Women's night has rounded out my soccer experience.  I am grateful there are enough women to keep the night alive and that they are all enthusiastic and talented athletes in so many different ways. We have so much fun!  These women are also beautiful and unique and all bring something special to the field.  I am hoping women's night continues at Tilton Sports Center.

As I continue to train for Mount Shasta in a physical sense, I am also taking on emotional challenges in everyday life.  Soccer takes me away from those challenges and poses its own.  I look forward to the challenges I meet on Mount Shasta, but until then, soccer (particularly on women's night) is where I will find my peace of mind and encouragement for the challenges along the way.