SOCCER FULL CIRCLE

I first experienced soccer in the cold and wet Pacific Northwest. My twins both decided they wanted to play this somewhat suspect European game. I, up to that point, was a baseball mom - for both my girl and boy. That's the way we rolled in Cali.

Soccer was immediately incomprehensible to me. It looked like they just bunched up kicking at the ball and making good use out of the shin guards we bought. Games involved running around, kicking the ball. Then there were oranges, then running around some more. This was done on a hard sand and dirt packed field in all weather. The parents roamed up and down the sidelines following the play - (actually, trying to keep warm.)

Zac figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't for him and we let him drop out. Maggie stuck with it for YEARS, rain, cold, snow - she played. Then Ally took it up, too. At least by that time we were back in California and it was warm and they played on grass. Here the parents line up down the sidelines in folding chairs with umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun.

So I have been going to soccer games for 13 years. I hate soccer. I have never understood the rules, stategies or undying love people have for this game. Including Ally. She LOVES to play, but today may have been her last game. She is not playing for the school team, and the rec teams sort of peter out after this year.

So today, in the unseasonable rain, wrapped in a blanket and under an umbrella, I may have attended my last soccer game.