Represent

FC Portland game

Everytime the whistle blows to begin a soccer match my heart jumps. The whistle starts ninety minutes of hard work, getting your toes stepped on, going into challenges even though you might get hurt, risk of concussion, ACL tears, and pain just to represent your club, country or school. Each time a person steps on a field, court, track, rink or any sport arena, they are being watched. Playing in front of you club coaches, school teachers, or country scouts can be very stressful and scary.

Club sports are a commitment, you are agreeing to practice your sport everyday, to save your homework until late at night, and to drive for hours just for one match. It is for the fun but also to better my skills in my sport, to better my diclipin, my fitness and my determination. I enjoy every minute I get to play wearing my FC Portland badge. When I wear it I know that everything I am doing on and off the field represents my club. I love my teammates on FC Portland, we are friends during practice encouraging each other and, making each other better players. During a game we are teammates, supportive and competitive, we may sound harsh to each other but we are only trying to win, and do the best we can. I know my coaches are watching very closely and some coaches that I will have in the future are watching me. That puts stress on me, however over the years I have learned to deal with the stress and play my game. The stress is a sign that I am ready for the game. Everytime I step on the field I know that I am representing an amazing, fun, hardworking soccer club.

School sports teams are the most supportive and enthusiastic teams I have played on. They are less stressful and more about teamwork. I feel that I had less pressure to win during the school games than club games. It was a lighter, more happy place to play and I could experiment with different things that I learned during club. However playing in front of teachers always made me nervous even if it was just practice. The thought of missing a wide open shot in front of my English teacher scared me a lot. The League Championship game was worth all of the stress and pain. We played our arch rivals OES; the game was set with a huge crowd and lots of teachers. After the first three seconds of the game I had already fouled someone. I could hear all of the OES fans just screaming for a yellow card. Luckily there was no yellow, just a smile from my coach. We were up two to zero at the half then everything went downhill. OES came back and scored with ten minutes left and scored the tying goal with only a minute left. During overtime I injured my knee, so when we went into penalty kicks I sat of the field biting my nails. We won! Those are the moments I live for, everyone rushed the field and the high school girls helped me into the big dog pile. Students I had never seen before high fived me. That just proves our school spirit. I love representing my school, and taking part in big games like that one.

Russia Team in Red Square

During the spring break of 2014 I was offered a chance to go to Moscow, Russia and play in a soccer tournament. My parents were very hesitant about it, but they finally said yes and I was able to go. There were two other girls my age and the rest were one year older. We had a lot of practices and team meetings leading up to the tournament. Our coach talked about how we needed to represent our club and country. The thought of representing the US really made me take a reality check. I couldn’t believe that I would be representing the US at age twelve. We were not allowed to wear anything with the American flag on it when we were sightseeing because of the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. At the airport before leaving I remember saying goodbye to my parents and wanting to cry, but I kept it together and left with my team. We arrived in Moscow very late at night and stayed in a boarding school with the host team of the tournament.  All of the girls had their heads sticking out of the window and watched us walk in. The first couple of nights were very hard for me. I got really dizzy and I couldn’t sleep.

Our first game was a fairly easy team from Sweden. We were very lucky to play them because we were rusty. We won all of our games untill we played Chertanovo, the host team. We tied two to two. During our days off from games we trained in the morning and went sightseeing during the afternoon. We saw Red Square and a mall near the school. We played Chertanovo during the finals and we won. It was the first time they had not won that tournament in nine years. A lot of the girls were crying and I felt a little bad about cleating one of them. After each game we took pictures with the Russian children and signed their pictures and notebooks. I felt like a celebrity. Leaving Moscow was bittersweet. I was sad to leave the girls we played and became friends with but happy to see my family and friends again. Our trip lasted twelve days, and was the best experience of my life. That trip I wore the FC Portland badge but who knows which one I will be wearing next?