I had a wonderful time in high school, and since! Sure, there was all the drama of trying to sort out my teenage self from the ‘self’ that was more enduring. I survived – my parents survived – that was a pretty good score. When I look at pictures from back then I can’t help but wonder, ‘Was I ever really that young?’ Didn’t feel so young at that time!
Now – some forty years later – I’m going back. Going back to meet up with the same group of girls that I had such an amazing time with. Our high school developed into somewhat of a soccer dynasty. We were the first group of girls allowed to play interschool soccer. It had been a boys’ sport up to that point. Our first team was formed in the spring of 1974. By 1976 we were champions in the growing league and we kept that up for a number of years.
Above is my high school chum, Joanne. I’m in the background – another of the girls in jean cut offs! And – if you could just zoom in closer you’d see that I had my trademark golf shirt under my soccer shirt. A golf shirt with a large collar … always showing at the neck of my jersey. You can see that in the team photo at the top too. No – I wasn’t called out of class and had to pop the soccer shirt on top of my school clothes. I actually liked those big collars. 😉
Eventually we got to stop wearing the boys’ soccer shirts and got our own. We started to spend our weekends – spring and summer – traveling to tournaments all over Ontario. Hmmm… the above photo was taken at a tourney in Kingston. Notice … somehow I already knew that a cowboy hat was the best style for me! (Took another thirty years to earn my rights to that!) 😉
We had an amazing coach – and still have him along for the ride! His name is Terry Gamble. He along with two other great high school staff – long retired – will be joining 15 of us to watch the FIFA games coming up in Ottawa this weekend. We’re going to get together at one of the girl’s homes to watch the Team Canada match up on Saturday night. Then we’ll have great seats up front to see the two games live in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon. How neat is that. To have gone from being the first group to be allowed to play the sport – to being able to see Womens’ World Cup games – live – up close – and personal! Although I will not have my own cleats with me … a girl can dream. 😉
The Meadow View 