Fun and Common Injuries

 Injuries are very common to come by when you play soccer. Almost every girl that I've played with has had some type of injury whether it be just a little muscle pull to a torn ACL. There are many severe injuries that can cost players their career. I myself am lucky to say the worst injury I've ever had was spraining my ankles...only about 10 times. Trust me you would think that it doesn't sound too bad, but really it sucks. I have to get my ankles taped and wear braces on both of them. It's not as bad as some other injuries that pop up in soccer that include ACL (as I already mentioned), along with MCL, tearing your Achilles Tendon, concussions, and pulling big muscles such as your hamstring.



Just to gross you out.



 Soccer come with the ultimate price of becoming injured. Every season their is someone that gets hurt. In the past 3 years I've played at the high school, I've seen about 4 different people tear their ACL's. It can happen when a player makes a sudden movement in a different direction, or if the knee buckles inward. The other major reason people tear this so much is because a lot of people slide tackle; which is technically illegal if you're target is the player, not the ball. It usually takes a full year, maybe a little less to recover fully and get back to playing. During those months they have to go through physical therapy to regain their strength. The only downside is that it's very common to tear your opposite one because its much weaker after all the physical therapy. 



The braces that they have to wear after ACL injury.

  Tearing your Achilles is just painful to watch. One of the girls on my team tore it the summer going into sophomore year. Lets just say she was in a pretty good amount of pain. She was jumping up to catch a ball coming towards goal and when she came down someone stepped on the back of her heal and she immediately went down. So we kind of lost our goaly that year. But on the bright side shes back now and almost fully recovered! She had to go through a lot of therapy as well and was on crutches with a boot for a good 6 months.


Air Cast needed for torn Achilles and sprained ankles. 



 I probably should have worn an air cast for my ankles but I didn't. Oh well. I'll just invest in ankle replacements after my soccer career is over-if that even possible. I'm just thankful that I have never torn anything or done something severe. Knock on wood for next season! Our team is doing ACL prevention over the summer to include in our workouts with hopes of none this year!



Because people always say soccer players fake.





Playing for ALHS soccer team

 This past year was my third year of playing soccer for the shoregals. I can't believe that next fall will be my last and final season at ALHS:( I've made so many memories throughout it all. There's been ups and downs but I still love it.
 My first year it was pretty nerve racking at tryouts. I was going out for the position as a right outside midfielder. This is probably the worst (but best for me) position to have because the whole time you're constantly running up and down the field. I made the team and actually started the whole year! We actually won our first ever girls soccer SWC title. It was really cool being a part of that! Since then I'd say we have had success, just not as much as we've wanted.
 Sophomore year was okay and we had a pretty good-average season with about the same number of wins as losses. I really enjoyed sophomore year because I was just beginning to be pulled up onto varsity to get some playing time. It was pretty intimidating but it definitely prepared me for this year.


Sophomore year JV team.

 This past summer there was more drama going down then I'd ever expect. Between our coach Kiko stepping down, tryouts, and just stupid talking, I didn't know how we would do this year. Stepping on the field for our first game I felt confident and just knew we were going to have a great season, despite our whole summer drama crap.

In a huddle as we get ready for our first home game.

 Yeah so our season didn't really turn out how we all hoped it would. Our record ended up being 2-10-5....yeah not so good. I think that it was really because we lost 12 seniors the year before and had to rebuild it. We had a lot of underclassmen trying to fill the shoes of the previous seniors. Even though our record wasn't too good I still did have fun! Between team dinners, team bonding, and team sleepovers, it made up for the crap season!

Me rocking that outside mid.

At our super horribly muddy game.

           First half of Avon Lake shoregals varsity vs. Sylvania Northview

 I'm really looking forward to next year, even though it will sadly be my last:( I hope we have a much improved winning season with positive outlooks! .....and no drama...but that would never happen.

Team Bonding

 Every year, us shoregals pack up our tees, shorts, and tennis shoes and travel to our Team Bonding camp. I look forward to this every summer. During late August we take off a weekend and go to a camp sight called Pilgrim Hills. We do fun activities while talking and bonding with our new teammates. It's the one time during the summer where we aren't competing against each other and can just have fun. I've made some pretty good memories from these camps.



Team Bonding 2K12



 Before we leave we get a schedule of events that will take place at the camp. The first day we usually arrive around 4 in the afternoon and the leaders tell us our cabin numbers and our roommates. Then we go out into this big open grass area and play a few ice breaker games. These are pretty fun because you can just mess around. Next we go and have a late snack in the cafeteria and play a few board games. After our first day of being there we hang out with each other in the cabins and go to bed.

The "Lets Get Weird" Gang.



 You think we get to sleep in the next morning? Yeah I wish. Wake up call is at 7 where we have to be at breakfast by 7:45. It's pretty rough if I must say myself. There's no time to sleep in when we have a full day of activities planned. We usually hang around in the main hall for a while just playing games and talking about our goals as a team before we head out to canoeing. It literally takes 3 hours to canoe down the river. Lets just say all we wanted to do was sleep when we got back. After that we hang around until dinner. Right after dinner we play a game called predator vs. pray. It's probably one of the funnest games ever. It's pretty much a huge game of man hunt. Before the bonfire, we have a talent show for anyone to do anything. This year, a group of girls including myself made up a dance to a mash up of different songs. It made everyone laugh...and of course someone took a video of it. Then  when it gets dark out we go down to a little lake and start the bonfire. This is my favorite part because we play a game called Mafia. Then we head back to our cabins just to hang out and have "girl" talk before we finally call it a night.



More of the LGW gang.

 On the last day there we have to get up, eat breakfast, and head out. Before we go the whole team stops at the entrance sign and takes pictures. I'm going to miss going there every summer even though it's just for a weekend. When we get home everyone seems so much closer since before we left. We become closer with new people and our team becomes stronger because of it. I just recently found out that this year we aren't going back there for my senior year:( Instead we're just going to some church and doing who knows what. I'm kind of super upset because it will be my last year and now we don't have an official team bonding. Karen Krause and I had an idea of doing a ropes course or going to Kalahari instead. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens! Overall, I think that team bonding retreats are great for every team. I know I love them just cause we're pretty much go crazy!!



Got to love us dysfunctional juniors.



Team Dinners

 Food, food, food, and more food. When you're an athlete all we want to do is eat. We are hungry before games, after games, even in between games. Usually, every team has organized dinners together. Every season we have about six team dinners hosted either at a teammates house or in the high school commons. They range from Mexican tacos to breakfast for dinner. Breakfast for dinner by far is the favorite amongst the team. It first started when I was a freshman. My mom, Karen's mom, and Molly's mom all decided we should do a breakfast dinner. Since then we have done three and we hope the tradition will continue.

 The dinner includes a wide variety of foods. The best are the pancakes prepared every year by my dad. Did I mention these pancakes are chocolate chip? I must say they're pretty tasty. There are also plain pancakes, but those are for the squares. Of course we have tons of sides as well. We have blueberry, chocolate chip, and cinnamon muffins. There's also sausage and bacon. For drinks we have CHOCOLATE MILK, and orange juice. Chocolate milk is the most commonly chosen just cause it's so good.

 

 Overall team dinners are fun because we eat delicious food, and get to mess around with each other. At our first team dinner we had someone pierce some other girls ear. Everyone was crowded around watching. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Besides that we all just like to talk as a team since we normally don't get to do that when we are on the field. We are all just our crazy selves when we hang out together.
 Team dinners are a great way to bring everyone together after a hard workout on the field. Whenever we have one scheduled, it just makes me work harder as practice knowing we get to eat right after. I think we can all agree team dinners are fantastic for many different, but all good, reason!!



Just looking at these makes me want some.

Soccer Clothing Is Where It's At

 Shoes, shin pads, socks, shorts, shirts, pre wrap, and a lot of hair ties. If you go in a soccer bag these are just a few of the items you'll find. During the summer I live in soccer clothes. I don't even want to begin to list the amount of shorts/t-shirts I have. Alright so I'm going to start off with shorts. Let's see there's running shorts and soccer shorts. These are two completely different types so don't get them confused. I wear running shorts a lot for conditioning sessions we have in the morning. As for the open plays, I will wear soccer shorts. I would say I have an equal amount of both of these two types. I personally like running shorts because they have so many different colors!



Soccer Shorts.




Running shorts.

 Since I've already talked about shoes in my last blog, we can move on to shirts. I don't think I've ever actually gone out to the store to buy a t-shirt. You just don't do that. I have accumulated so many t-shirts over the years from different camps, games, and races. I honestly think if I counted all of them up I would have over 50. They're all different and I can remember when I first got all of them. I just keep adding to my collection each year.



Soccer Girl Problems t-shirt. I really want one.





 



 I would show a picture of all the shirts I have but I really don't want to take them all out and have to put them back. So next are socks. As a team we have uniform socks we wear. They are white Adidas. Boring right. I mean why not pick a super fun color sock and have everyone wear that?



You have to admit these are sweet. 

 Oh and to go under these socks, we have to wear shin guards. Yep they're pretty annoying. They just get all sweaty and gross. Anyways, they really are not fun or cool or anything. I hope you've enjoyed reading about soccer clothing and all the great necessities we have. One last pic of pre wrap just for fun. I mean there's so many different colors you can wear it with anything!!



Best headband ever.

Soccer Girl Problems

 If you're a girl and play soccer, I'm sure you've heard of SoccerGrlProbs. Just in case you haven't, they describe the life of a soccer girl to the dime. They started off as a twitter account and now have 2 YouTube videos that have gotten over 2 million views, and a clothing website. When I first saw their twitter account, I couldn't stop reading all of their tweets. They were so funny and I could relate to almost all of them!

They describe every girl soccer player.

 

 

 At almost every practice, their would be at least one soccer girl problem quote. And once a quote was said, they kept going on and on and on. Every time a girl would say one, everyone else would start cracking up with laughter because we all knew exactly what they were talking about. I remember one time we had a practice where the video had just come out the day before and we couldn't stop quoting them! It pretty much drove our coach insane but it was so funny we couldn't stop! If you want to know what I'm talking about then you should probably go watch it.



It pretty much describes a soccer girls life.

 

 

 In continuation to this video, there is a part 2. I definitely like this one better but the other is just as good!

 We all know how crazy referees can be, so just to be a little clearer these girls also made a video called Refs Do the Darndest Things. Might I say that this one was pretty funny as well. It really just shows how insane refs can be.







It's too funny.

 

 In addition to the videos their online website for clothing is pretty awesome as well. My favorite shirt that they sell says "I can't I have soccer". I've said that plenty of times before. Its fun just to think of all of the hilarious things they've said and relate them to the times they've happened to you. Once a soccer girl, always a soccer girl-and the problems that come along with it. 









Oh my god, Shoes!

 Soccer cleats that is.
 Every year it comes time when we all go out to pick what cleats we will wear for the season. Trust me; it's a pretty big deal. You must have a thought process when choosing the right pair. I don't know a single player who's just gone out and bought a pair of cleats without giving it any thought. You have to know your size, what color you want, and what brand you like the best. If you don't put this much detail into choosing the right cleats, you probably shouldn't be playing soccer.



Look how much they love their cleats.

 

 In my three soccer seasons playing at the high school, the only kinds of cleats I have worn are Nike Mercurial's. They are by far the best cleats I have ever owned. They are so comfy and I love the designs that are on them. I can't even look at the other brands when I go out to buy new one's. Some might wonder if it's weird that I'm so picky about the shoes I choose to wear, but I've asked my teammates if they love them as much as I do, and every one of them has said yes. It's just what we do.


Freshman year shoes.

Sophmore year shoes.

Junior year shoes.

 Just look at them. They are SO fun. The thing that I like about all of them is that they're all different! I literally love my shoes. Maybe I have a weird obsession, but what soccer girl wouldn't? If you love your shoes, you're going to love the game. You have to be crazy not to care about what your shoes look like. If you have ugly cleats, just know that you're going to be judged. And, if you wear super cool neon cleats, people are going to think you're amazing, so you better be. That's just the way we think. If it were my job to create soccer shoes for a living, I would. I guess that's just another soccer girl problem to add to the never ending list.