Soccer Camp

I've been walking on campus today and a Ute's Women's Soccer Camp is going on. It really makes me miss the days of my youth and wonder where the time has gone. Those girls are me over ten years ago. I lived for soccer. I would go to camps. I was in love with the game.

All these years later I still play every now and again. I've played a lot of indoor since High School. I played for Snow College and intramurals at both Snow and the University of Utah. Sometimes I wonder if I could have ever taken it farther; realized my untapped potential. Parts of me wish I had gone further, been better, but then again I think about all the other opportunities I have had in my life. Ultimate Frisbee is now almost my second love, and I appreciate so much the ability I have to run. But there is still a yearning in me to push a ball through the grass; to make that perfect pass; to tap the ball right past the Keeper into the back of the net. Sometimes it's almost magic.

Soccer was a major part of my life growing up. I know it shaped me in more ways than I realize. I look at these young girls out kicking a ball around on a sunny summer day and hope they appreciate the game and their potential. Maybe there is a Mia Hamm lurking in all of us. We just have to be brave enough to let her out.