"Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is the little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her." –Mia Hamm
To my coaches:
Firstly, thank you. You helped shaped me into the woman I am today. You made tough, confident and strong. Without y'all, I would be a different person today.
To my first coach (and the most influential), you taught me the value of a strong work ethic. You taught me to never quit and that you should always, always, ALWAYS give it your all (but still have fun).
To my second coach, you pushed me. You taught me nothing will be easy in life, but it will always be worth the hours of blood, sweat and tears.
Thank you for all the laughs, for my first taste of sisterhood, for my soccer family. Without you, there would have been no reason for us to bond over our mutual hatred of the word "conditioning" or the phrase "indoor practice." There would have been no one to hang out with after practice, to get food with, no one to carpool with to games and have an all out pre-game jam session.
Thanks, coaches, for your own specific brands of encouragement. Thank you to my first coach, who had all the patience in the world with me and took a gentler approach to dealing with me and my teammates. To my second, third and fourth coaches, though I was the baby on the team, you for treated me the same as the other girls, so thank you, even if that meant more of an adult version of encouragement and half-time speeches.
Thank you, coaches, for being like second fathers to me (except my first one — he was really my dad). You each guided me through a different phase of my life, ranging from awkward early high school years to making it onto a college team and reassuring me that it's OK to turn down an offer. You each imparted a little bit of wisdom in my life, and that is something that I will cherish forever.
Mostly, thank you for teaching me what the true definition of a team is. Being a member of a team is busting your own butt to make sure the team succeeds. It's being willing to run those extra sprints with the last teammate on the line and being the patient ear for those teammates who need it. It's being a member of the team tied together by our mutual love of the sport and working together to excel at it. It's being a member of something bigger than just yourself.
Sincerely,
One of your soccer girls
