Never Too Late...

Since Soccer Chick has formally finished her fall season of soccer, we pretty much assumed she would be hanging up her cleats for a few months. I pretty much assumed the sports chair and the vocal cords would rest too. A casual email came out from her All-Star coach, mentioning that there may be some opportunities for playing in pick-up soccer games throughout the winter.

What do you know, we get an email the Saturday after Thanksgiving inviting Soccer Chick and anyone else who's interested, to play in a game. The weather was beautiful, so we were all for it. For good measure I brought along a sports chair and a book, thinking a good sit and read would be in order. Because, apparently, I had temporarily lost my mind, I dressed myself to play. Soccer Chick was perplexed, "YOU'RE playing?" Yea, sure. Why not?

I will tell you why not. Because I have not played a formal or informal game of soccer since I myself was a child. I'm thinking like age 8 might have been the very last time the whistle blew for me. Pitiful. One life-long regret admission here: I totally wish I had kept sports in my life. Totally.

So out we go to the soccer field. Five of the 6 Copelands in tow, all expecting to play. The Hub's attention got grabbed by a flag football league close by. That kept him focused there for at least the first 10 minutes of our play. I really did play. Close your mouth. Youngest, BBall Girl, Soccer Chick and I played with two other families. Some were athletic, some not so much. I will not entertain you with my flubs. Let's just say lots of missed opportunities, and it really is much easier from the sideline.

The moral of the story is I'm really glad I did it. If I could do that all the time I would be fit and in shape. If I could join an amateur's team of no-good, talentless soccer players, I would be all over it. It was great. I forced myself to be embarrassed and be comfortable with it. I forced myself to laugh at myself. That part was easy. Just join in with the other who are either shaking their heads or laughing. Once The Hub joined in, I gave him several warnings to remember this was a casual game. After several score updates, I told him no one was keeping score. He needed to let that go. Oh, The Hub, ever the competitive one. Dripping with sweat within 10 minutes of kick off. Tripping up a 6 year old boy and 9 year old girl. Nevermind that they were his own children.