Soccer was an integral part of my 1970s childhood and part of how I defined myself as a girl. I started playing in a YMCA rec league when I was 10 and kept on playing through my junior year in college. Thanks to the Y league rule that every player must play half of every game, I had the chance to develop skills that as an admittedly not particularly athletic kid, I would have never learned sitting on the bench. I wasn't fast (okay, I was slow) and I didn't have any fancy moves, but I was scrappy and determined.
In junior high, a couple of my friends and I played on the boys team at my tiny private school, freaking out opposing teams who apparently couldn't cope facing off against girls. When I transferred to public school in 10th grade, there wasn't a girls team there either. The school board dug in on its decision not to fund a girls team, claiming that if it supported girls soccer, it would have to support ice hockey as well (a claim that seemed pretty weak for a community in the Deep South). An enterprising mom created an entire shadow league, fielding teams at 10 high schools to show the depth of support. The school board finally relented the year after I graduated. In college, I played on the B team, facing off against smaller schools nearby while the more talented players on the A team had stiffer competition in the NCAA's Division III.
We didn't have the spatial awareness, speed, impressive footwork, or the raw power that you find today at even at the high school level. But soccer to me was about hard work and persistence, digging deep when you'd had enough, when your muscles ached and you felt sick to your stomach. It was also about fun and camaraderie. I have great memories of hot days on dusty fields, hard fought wins against long-time rivals, and lots of laughs (and probably more giggles than the coaches preferred) and shenanigans with my teammates. Qualifying to be a referee taught me how to be a leader and exercise authority with the players and their sometimes obnoxious parents. The through line was that girls can do it too, a feminist message that has burned in me on and off the field in the years since.
So I'll be in front of the TV at odd hours over the next few weeks, cheering on Team USA as they go for yet another gold. And even though it's been decades since I've touched a soccer ball, I find myself physically reacting to play on the screen, a sign that soccer is still truly in my blood.
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