Soccer - My Story

Soccer Tots

The first time that I played soccer was when I was two, and I was a Soccer Tot. Soccer Tots is a little kids soccer class, and you can see a picture of me participating in the class on the right. When I was in kindergarten, my mom asked me if I wanted to play recreational soccer, and I said yes, so she signed me up. My recreational team was
the Power Kickers, and we were a very good team for the three seasons I played with them. In third grade I stopped playing recreational soccer and I moved on to play club soccer because my parents thought there would be better coaching, more competition, and in general it would give me more opportunity to develop myself as a player. The club team that I went to play for was Willamette United Soccer Club, or WUSC. Since this was club soccer, I had to tryout, but nonetheless, I’m pretty sure everyone was offered a spot since it was just third grade soccer. Even though I made my age group team,

Playing recreational soccer

I was placed on the B team, which was not the team I wanted to be on. I strongly disliked the fact that I wasn’t on the A team, yet I would scrimmage and practice with them all the time, so I asked my mom why I wasn’t on the A team, and she told me that it was probably because the coach didn’t know me very well in the beginning of the season when she made teams. After all, my coach had coached most of the girls in my age group the year before, so it made sense that she didn’t know me as well as the other girls. Because I hated being on the B team so much, I worked harder in practice to improve my game, so I could move up to the A team the next year. However, things didn’t go as well as I wanted them to go because we got a new coach, and after tryouts I was once again placed on the B team. This didn’t make me happy, so I continued working hard and trying my best at practices and games to show the coach that I was good enough to be on the A team. Eventually this work paid off because later that season in the spring when rosters were readjusted, I was put on the A team. Even though I got rostered on the A team, I didn’t stop working hard because in order to keep myself on the team I needed to prove that I was willing to work hard and improve. I continued to play with WUSC the following year, but there were a couple of changes that affected my team and me. One change was that we got a new coach, and another change was that the way

Playing soccer with Willamette United

teams were separated based on age was changed. Previously, teams were divided by grade level, but leagues were changing it so teams now had to be divided by birth year. This change affected my team because some girls that were born in 2005 moved up to play with players that were a grade level ahead of us that were born in the same year, while the rest of us that were born in 2006 were joined by some girls that were born in the year we were, but were a grade level below us. Luckily, the people who left my team weren’t super close to me, and they weren’t necessarily on the A team with me, so my team didn’t experience super dramatic changes. Also, I had been playing midfield for pretty much my whole life, and then my new coach started playing me as a center defender, which has a very different role than a midfielder, and I didn’t like playing so far back. I was used to being able to get further up the field on the attack, and because I was moved to center defender I gained greater defensive responsibilities that I didn’t previously have. Because playing defender wasn’t what I wanted to be playing, I tried to prove to my coach that I could play midfield just as well, and even better than the people who were currently playing there, but my coach kept playing me as a center defender, so I had to learn to like it.

Playing soccer with Willamette United

Even though there were changes that affected me in the beginning of my 5th grade year playing soccer, my team ended up being successful. In the summer, we did very well in the tournaments we played in, and even won a couple, which got us off to a great start. We finished in second place for the fall season, which gave us a good seed for the state tournament (State Cup) which we participated in later that spring. As State Cup drew closer, everyone got much more serious in training and during games because it was the first year we were able to participate in the tournament, and we all wanted the win under our belts. We started off the tournament by fighting our way to a 1-0 victory over PCU (Portland City United), and then solidly defeating CUSC (Clackamas United Soccer Club) 3-0. Then, we rolled over LOSC (Lake Oswego Soccer Club) 9-0, which collected us our third win, and gave us a spot in the semifinal. We played Westside Timbers in our next game, which was very close from the first whistle to the final whistle, and both teams had many opportunities score, but neither did. The end of regulation ended in a draw, so we entered the first fifteen minute period of overtime. I was very nervous going into overtime because if the score was still tied after the two overtime periods, we would have to determine a winner in penalty kicks, and my team had experienced that several times before, and it was not fun. Luckily, the game wasn’t sent into penalty kicks because Bri, my teammate, scored a goal in the second overtime to give us the lead, and we were able to hold that lead up until the final whistle.

When I won State Cup

After the game, my team joyously ran onto the field jumping excitedly because we were headed to the finals! In the finals we rematched PCU, who we had previously played in the first game of the tournament. The game felt very professional because there was someone filming it, and before we played, we all lined up behind the refs and walked out to the middle of the field, and then stood in a line adjacent to them, so all of the people that were watching us could see our teams. The final game ended up being a lot less stressful than the semifinal match we had just played because the game ended in regulation with us winning at a comfortable 3-0. This win meant we were 2017 state champions, and my team as well as myself were overjoyed! Yes, this game wasn’t like winning the World Cup or the Olympics, but it was a big win for us, and a great way to end our season. My team had moderate success the next season, coming in the middle of the rankings in the fall, then coming in a little higher in the rankings in the spring, and then losing the semifinal match of State Cup, but overall it wasn’t a bad season. When tryouts came around for the 2018/2019 season, many of my teammates took a different path, including myself. I decided to try out for a different team the next season because my parents and I thought it was time for a change, and also because our team was losing about six of our players, so the team would be very different if I had stayed. The two clubs that I was looking at to play for next were GPS (Global Premier Soccer), and Westside Timbers. It was a pretty tough decision with many things to consider, but in the end I decided to try out for Westside Timbers. I ended up making the team, and I am playing my first season as a Westside Timber currently. Since the beginning of the season, I have

When we won the Beaverton Cup

been a starting center midfielder, which is where I actually want to play. This season has been pretty successful so far for both me and my team because we tallied wins in the Adidas Beaverton Cup, the Beaverton Cup 4v4 tournament, and the Mt. Hood Challenge, and we also tied for first in the fall league. I have also developed a lot as a player over the past few years in many different areas of the game. I have improved different areas of my game from ball skills to endurance all the way to my mentality. I plan to keep working to improve myself as a player on and off the field, and hopefully that work will pay off in the near future of my soccer career.