Some people may or may not know, but I actually played on the Green Girls Soccer team for all four years of high school. Being slow and skillfully challenged made my experience on the team different from most people’s experiences with high school sports, but this wasn’t necessarily a horrible thing.
Now I wouldn’t go as far as say that I loved my time on the soccer team, since that would be a lie, but now that it’s officially over I can actually say that I am grateful that I stayed on the team for so long. I never really enjoyed the sport but when I entered high school everything was still very locked down due to COVID, and soccer practices were a chance to get out and see people. I decided freshman year that I was going to play two years and then quit since I would’ve received my gym credit by then. At this time my older sister played on the team too, so it was also nice to be able to bond and listen to Taylor Swift with her on the drives to practice. After my sophomore year, I was going to quit until I realized that literally all of my friends played soccer. My biggest issue with quitting was seeing how much time it took up. I was scared I would never be able to see my friends since they would always be at soccer, so I decided that one more year wouldn’t hurt. (Also being outside all summer helped me stay tan, which was just another pro to add to my pro-con list).
Going into my senior year there were 15 seniors, which is more than the amount of players on the field. There were also over 60 people who showed interest in playing, which led to the daunting word “cuts” being thrown around. This obviously scared me because I knew I didn’t do much for the team (I was more there for social aspects), and I had dedicated three years already to this sport. How embarrassing to be cut your senior year. After pre-season conditioning started people began to drop off the team, so there were actually no official cuts made. I spent three out of four years on the freshman team and while it was treacherous I believe this is also where my high patience and extreme persistence stems from. My big fear going into senior year was being placed on the freshman team once again. I’m not saying I didn’t deserve to be on a lower team especially since I am self-aware of my skill set; however, I was always confused about how I was supposed to grow as a player since I never was presented with opportunities to grow or show off my skills amongst a different crowd. During the last team placement day I would ever have, I was given the shocking news that I would actually be a swing player between JV and Varsity. While most of the players on the team would scoff or maybe cry with the placement I was given I was overjoyed because I was finally on the same team as all of my friends.
Even though I didn’t receive much playing time during my years on the team I still had fun. Senior year my friends and I decided to embrace our positions on the team and even took over keeping stats for every game since this would actually do something helpful for everyone. A lot of the team probably thought we were crazy to be happier doing stats on the bench than actually playing, but in all honesty, doing stats with my friends was my favorite part of all four years of soccer. One of my favorite memories was on a super cold day, and right after we walked off the field for the national anthem my friends and I took off all of our stuff and began bundling in blankets and sweats. We were so confident we wouldn’t go in that game, especially since we were losing, that during halftime we even took off our shin guards and cleats. Little did we know the last ten minutes we would actually be told to go on the field leaving all of us scrambling around to put on our uniforms again. It’s not like we never played, but we did spend a good amount of our time talking stats, and we were happy to do so.
Obviously, every person is different and has different priorities and expectations, but I would just like to say that life is all about how you make it. I could’ve easily sat and pouted on the bench because I was unhappy with my placement, but instead, I made some friends and we had a blast keeping stats all season. My advice to anyone going into high school sports is that you can’t go in expecting to get everything right away, and to also make light of any situation you are placed into. Who knows, you may even have more fun on the bench.
With Love, from your favorite benchwarmer, Morgan