“You have played soccer since you were able to walk” my mother has told me countless times, thanks to her, placing a ball at my feet at the time. Her reasoning for doing so originated from her love for the game since her father was a soccer coach for the El Salvador National team. I unsurprisingly do not recall this time of my life although she does have the pictures to prove it. Although, what I do remember is my first soccer team experience. It all began at the age of four in an indoor facility called “Players 360”, in Naperville. Here is where an intramural league with other children my age dressed in Superman capes and shirts whilst flailing around a miniature turf field with our parents bordering the sidelines. The innocent, fun, and wholesome intramural league was something I would have never expected to continuously evolve in level and seriousness as I progressed through life.
I later became a part of the club NSA playing a year up in order to challenge myself and gain more experience. After playing here until roughly the age of nine, I moved on to the club team Chicago Fire Juniors. It was at this time when the price, distance, and effort required all began to amplify. Each soccer season often spanned for only half of a year yet costs one to two thousand dollars excluding tournament, travel, and uniform costs. We drove two times a week to a random field neighboring Plainfield South High School, roughly a 40-minute drive. Inconveniencing both my parent’s work day and personal life. I made the Academy team but after a change of role in the coaching staff, I saw the club dwindling in quality and decided to change clubs to Eclipse at the age of thirteen. A team that was exponentially growing and gaining popularity due to their success. This was both the best and worst decision of my athletic career. The coaches were strict, inconsiderate, and relentless. Each practice began and ended with a mile on top of scrimmages, drills, and speed conditioning mid-practice. The effort required to improve drastically increased as I was surrounded by much better players than myself.
Did I become a better player?
Yes.
Did I become a better leader?
Yes.
But at what cost?
I had lost my love for the game at this club, I became self-conscious about my soccer talents as I seemed to never surpass my teammates in skill level. I changed to Evolution soccer by the age of 15 where it was less competitive but also to be frank, boring. I thought the practices were too easy, redundant, and unenjoyable after I had become less interested in soccer.
After just two years of soccer at the high school level and reaching my current age of seventeen, I searched elsewhere athletically.
That is when I took on the challenge of starting the new sport of lacrosse during my Junior year of high school simply due to a friend’s recommendation. I was four months out of the high school season when that same friend who recommended I started lacrosse insisted I did box lacrosse if I wanted to make the varsity level. A form of lacrosse that was more similar to hockey in terms of game speed and roughness. So I did so, and it became my goal to make the varsity lacrosse team. I devoted those four months to practicing and learning the sport through film, the box season, and my older sister and brother who played lacrosse in college. But consequences arose, my grades began to slip, my social and personal life took a toll, and the majority of my time was spent on lacrosse and in the gym. Luckily, Come Spring, my efforts paid off and I made the varsity team, leaving soccer behind.
But was all the time, effort, and money that was put into soccer a waste?
Was I letting down my mother after she made her desire for me to play soccer so clear?
Were countless hours for nearly 90% of my life lost, and for nothing?
Thankfully, I believe I did not waste my time playing soccer although it may feel like that at the surface level. I think that as most sports do for others, it played a major role in my life by providing me with discipline, leadership, and a healthier, more active lifestyle. The sport was likely the main contributor to my character development, personality, and lifestyle. Having to aerobically condition and keep my body in its top shape aided me in my recent goal of making the lacrosse team and for personal confidence, gain, and health. I was able to prosper over the years due to the sport and relay my same competitiveness on the field to other aspects of my life such as my academics. I attribute most of my success thus far to soccer, a team sport which like other team sports has been shown to develop youth in a positive manner. A study backing this claim was published in the journal Pediatrics, where it states that “Participation in team sports results in a higher GPA for both high school boy and girl athletes. Physically active children are 15% more likely to attend college. Former student-athletes tend to earn significantly higher incomes than those who did not play sports. Student-athletes earn up to 40% higher test scores”. So as my personal experience and statistics show, playing team sports no matter the path taken or journey, more often than not will positively influence one’s life as a whole.
I got chills reading this. Sometimes life takes us in paths that we never could have imagined for ourselves. I too experienced a similar situation with basketball, as I had played for 10 years before I quit my sophomore year due to my high school experience. I was able to find my love for golf and carry the lessons I’ve learned with me. Though incredibly unfortunate that you lost your love for soccer, I am so glad that you are able to stay connected to sports as that seems to have been a huge part of your life. It’s also inspiring to see how you were able to take an unfortunate circumstance and extract lessons that you are able to carry with you throughout the rest of your life. I hope that you can rekindle your love for soccer at some point and continue to play for fun if not competitively.
Each sport we participate in teaches us lessons about work ethic and life. Each sport develops certain muscle groups other sports don’t. I am glad you realize that it wasn’t a waste of time. Every path, every decision helps us become who we are even if on the surface it doesn’t appear that way. Thanks for sharing. Nice job on making the varsity team for Lacrosse.
Alex, I think a tear rolled down my cheek as I read this. This is truly inspiring and should be shown to anyone going through a tough time with their sport. I really admire your perseverance in making the varsity lacrosse team and think it’s super impressive that you got so good in four months. A lot of people don’t want to switch their sport because they feel like they’ll be behind if they join late. You obviously proved that assumption wrong by going above and beyond in lacrosse. I can relate to your story with a similar experience regarding dance. I started ballet when I was 4 and picked up hip-hop, jazz, and lyrical throughout the next 11 years. My love for dance died when I joined the Naperville North dance team and I quit my sophomore year. I still love music and beats and I don’t think I’ll ever lose my double pirouette. Overall, I love this piece and I hope you continue to enjoy lacrosse.
This is a blog post that I can relate to very very much. My hockey career nearly parallels your soccer career. It all starts with the love of the game. Then once you start getting better, you start to question whether you truly enjoy what you are doing anymore. Sometimes I think that being naturally gifted at a sport can be a blessing and a curse. I too started driving over 40 minutes to play hockey and spent around 25 hours a week missing Fridays pretty often and realized that it was not something that I could sustainably do. It makes me think about how hardcore sports have gotten, and the things people will do to get to the next level. It is such a large time commitment for something that you have no guarantee or control over. What could I have done with all that time that I would have had had I never played travel hockey?