some life lessons from soccer

I have thought alot lately about my mother and the wonderful relationship I have been so blessed to form and enjoy with her over the years. She is amazing and has taught me so much. As I am getting ready to coach Henry in soccer, I have looked back and thought of all of the years my mom coached me in soccer every fall & spring from U8-JV team at Logan High my freshman year.
I laugh a little as I remember the many 'how to' soccer books she bought to learn the game, they had drills, plays, rules , of the game etc.. But at the same time I realize just why she bought all those books. It's because she wanted to do her best, which in return helped us do our best as a team. Those books must've paid off because we were very successful! 6- 1st place 5- 2nd place season finishes!

So from the buying of the books I have learned that if there is something you want to do or learn, do it! We have our own 'how to books' that will assist us through life. They may have rules, guidelines and it will help us come up with a game plan, that will help lead to success! They will help us learn how to be victorious!

She also wanted to be able to teach us everything she could and used her gift of creativity at it's best! We were young and just learning the game so one practice she presented to us an idea for a team name. She said, "how about being the "GODOMOFS" now she had explained this to me prior to that practice to see if it made sense so I felt kind cool knowing about it ahead of time. As the girls all looked at each other like, what????? She then went on to say in soccer you can be a Goalie or Defender or Midfield or Forward Sweeper, it took a few minutes but then the light bulb turned on!! And it was unanimous we would from then on be known as the GODOMOFS!

So from that day on we were the GODOMOFS! And we were known as a good, strong, successful team! A team that played fair, had good sportmanship and always got along with each other. We had a GREAT reputation. We were a legacy, in those days :) Well, we have names...what reputation(s) have we earned/formed with our names? If someone were to hear your name, what would they think? What will your legacy be?

Through soccer I learned alot of lessons. One game that comes to mind is when we were playing the Hyde Park team at Lundstrom, we ended up winning pretty easily but it wasn't easy during the game. Because during the game WE hit the goal post 36 times!

So what did I take from that? Never give up and keep trying, and success is bound to follow! It might take 36 dings but, you will get there!

Another game that comes to mind was a championship game in Hyrum against our arch rival. lol It was a tough game and ended up going into overtime which then went into a shootout!! It was a heck of a game! Well, during the shootout our goalie was injured while blocking a shot, I remember my mom looking around at the team and then she looked at me and said, "You're the goalie now!" I don't know if I have ever been so nervous, afraid in my life (at that point). So I put on my goalie shirt, my teammates cheered me on. And as I walked to the goal, my mom gave me a hug and said, "you can do this." Well happy to say I finished the shootout, amazingly I blocked 2 shots and we WON! What was learned from that crazy experience you may ask?

Well really there are 2 things that came to my mind, do we have an arch rival today? Someone that we go up against quite often? This rival, they don't want us to succeed, they want to do what they can, so that we will be defeated! They want to have the glory at the end of the game (life). But I know that if we can defeat this rival, this opponent, WE can hoist that trophy in the end! Also another thought that came to mind was that we need to, BE PREPARED!! Life is so unpredictable, and we need to do what we can to be prepared to step in when needed and block those shots that come our way! And as we walk to the goal, we have family, friends there cheering us on rooting for us. They want us to succeed, and they will be there for support when needed.

Now we had a heck of a record, but there were games and championships that were lost! As hard as it was at the time to accept 2nd place, we were disappointed, as a player in your mind you go through the would've, could've, should've stages. We were not an undefeated team by any means, we had games where defeats occurred. But we gave our best every game.

Defeat is never easy to accept, but I have learned if you work hard and do your best, that's all you can do! And when the defeats occur then instead of feeling sorry, and sad, the best thing to do is learn from them. And be proud of what you did accomplish!

One other thing that comes to mind as I think of my soccer days is my knee injury. My Junior year I had worked hard, was a starter, I was excited. I was totally looking forward to having a great season. Well, everything was going as planned, until one day I was slide tackled from behind by a girl (she didn't mean to hurt me)....my knee was injured and it resulted in surgery. Many painful hours of rehab followed. I went to practices and games to watch and support my team. I was still on the team. Just on the IR so to say.

So after a bum knee, and sitting on the sidelines what did I learn? I learned that sometimes life doesn't always go as planned. We may be hurt and injured along the way. The way back may be hard and painful, rehab or strength and conditioning may not be an easy thing, but after putting in the time and effort, you WILL come back stronger, then when the injury occurred. Just because you are injured, we are all still part of the team, and our teammates want to see us succeed. And being upset, or holding a grudge toward someone is NOT worth it in any way. People may hurt you at times, but unintentionally. The phrase 'forgive and forget', may be easier said then done, but it is a good phrase to live by. And when we have a family member, friend going through the recovery/rehab process, working on getting stronger. We need to be encouraging and offer our support.

Well that's about it for now. There are just some of my random, somewhat deep thoughts I guess huh?? If you happen to read this, don't be afraid to let me know how you feel, because this is experimental in a way. But, it's also an easy way to get these thoughts out of my head ;)