So I am washed up at 41 after 32 years of playing, with about a ten year break there in there to go to grad school and have the kid and stuff. Highlights were a 3rd-place finish in the Indiana State Cup with my women's team when I was in high school (no high school girls' soccer in South Bend back then), a season and a half on the club team at Northwestern (no varsity soccer in the Big Ten except for Indiana and Michigan back then, and the verbal assurance that I could walk on at Notre Dame didn't come with any scholarship money attached), and a co-ed championship in Tucson in 2000 that saw my teammates vote me Player of the Match in the final game. Permanent souvenirs include missing cartilage in both knees and a patch of scar tissue on my left shin that will never go away.
The days of goofy tan lines are over. I am now relegated to 40 Year Old on an Elliptical Machine Land. Ah well.
2 comments:
Nooooo ... don't retire! Unless you've lost your love of the game (which it sure doesn't sound like you have) can't you just shift your expectations a tad?
Or maybe you could take the course I took (as a non-soccer player who wanted to start at age-45) and step in the goal. It always kept the heart rate up for me!
Of course, I'm talking indoor soccer - which I'm guessing you're not. Do they have that in AZ? It might be a good option to stave off retirement.
Anyway - don't give up after 32 years ... IMVVHO!
At 5'4" I'm a little on the short side for covering the goal, especially when we already have a 6'5" dude on the team who takes up about a third of that space just by standing there.
And my knees can't take the pounding of indoor (our only facility doubles as a roller hockey venue and so has a hard surface).
It's okay, I knew this would happen eventually--was just hoping it wouldn't be this week.
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