Wait..You Don't Have Friends Either??

I promise. This isn't a post about not having friends. This is me, telling about my soccer team and how close we've all become. Right now, I'm playing for the Ogden Outlaws. My coach is Mike Hickman Jr. Playing on this team has been a whirlwind from day one. I came to this team when I was in 8th grade. They were still Rampage when I came. Most of the girls had already been playing together since they were about 8. So you can imagine how alone and awkward I felt showing up to that first indoor practice. No one talked to me. I had to be partnered with people instead of choosing a group. It took only a few weeks to really connect with those girls. To be honest, I didn't like a lot of them. They thought they were all that, but so did I. We clashed. I later became a captain on this team. I stayed captain for about three and a half years. In between those years, we switched over to the Ogden Outlaws, where my coach had played as a semi-pro. We loved it! It was so much better than the Rampage Club.
So..to talk about the present day. Our team has been going through a lot lately. Between girls quitting, a lot of us getting really sick (Me with strep/mono/who knows what it was, Britt with pneumonia, Searle with whatever she has), then with injuries (Me-hips-out for two months Sage-broken elbow-out for 6-8 weeks Katie-hips/hamstrings-lets be real. she is out every three months for something new.) We have had a hard time getting together and actually connecting again. We've had girls come and go, and as of right now we have about 4-5 of us from the original Rampage team. Everyone else is new. It was hard to get to know everyone and finally trust them, but we did it.
Tonight it hit me. We have a year left with this team before we all go our separate ways. Some of us to go play college ball, some to just study in school, and others will be starting a family. It's just crazy how old we all are! As a team, we've all connected finally. Some of these girls have turned into my best friends. We are all at different schools. Katie and I at Syracuse. Britt at Roy. Allie, Sage, and Kates at Weber, and so on and so forth. It's hard to get together when we all live so far away.
Tonight while we were at practice, we worked hard. We kicked butt while we conditioned and busted out to some serious tunes. Then we played a 3v3v3 scrimmage. Yet again, we totally killed it. My coach has been so happy with us for the last couple weeks. If you know him, that rarely ever happens. Nearing the end, we all decided to play more games instead of shooting. We were waiting for Mike to set up the drill when we all started juggling. While we were juggling, the topic of school and friends was brought up.Everyone at once, it seemed, chimed in about how they don't really have friends at their school. Thinking we were the only ones, this surprised us all. Truth be told, that is how it is for all of us. I hang out with Katie at school, Brittany on the weekends. At most, all of us only have about 3 really good friends besides the team. I think that made us all realize that we are so much alike, that it's easy to see how we all can be best friends at soccer, and not worry about having other friends outside of the team.
We kept juggling for about 10 more minutes. Mike joined in. The drill was set up, but we avoided it and just kept messing around. This doesn't happen all that much. We all tried to one up each other with tricks and moves, hit each other (Britt and Mike..) and just chatted. With five minutes left of practice, Mike asked if we wanted to play any games anymore. In unison, we all shouted, "NO!". So we carried on with our little game and bonding time.
All those girls on my team mean so much to me. I see them as friends, but also as family. I know if I need anything, they are just a phone call away. I guess that's what you get when you spend so much time with a group of crazy girls, and a coach who is a little crazier than us.
I love my Outlaws