World Cup, Here I Come!

Last week I mentioned that the newspaper indicated the VI Women's National Soccer team had begun practices. Well, turns out that wasn't entirely accurate. I made a phone call to see if I could volunteer with the team, and when the woman asked if I had any experience playing, I told her I'd played 12 years as a kid. She laughed at me and told me I shouldn't volunteer and that instead I should try out for the team! I was told that they are trying to start a women's mini-league here and then after that is over they'll pick the national team for the World Cup in 2007. She told me some of the girls hadn't played until they began these practices recently.

So, yesterday I went to my first soccer practice in over nine years. It was really fun. I was definitely one of, if not *the*, oldest players there. Most of them are in 9th or 10th grade. When I mentioned I hadn't played in the last 9 years, one girl said "wow, that's over half my life." (and then she immediately apologized for making me feel old.) It was pretty funny. It was fairly obvious that a lot of them are lacking experience, but the coach had us do some good drills, and we scrimmaged a bit too. I've got another practice on Thursday and then we'll be split up into mini-teams and we start weekend games this Sunday. My understanding is we'll only have 5 or 6 people on a team, so we'll be playing on short fields and they'll only be 15 minute games, then we'll switch which teams are playing each other. It should be fun! and maybe if I'm lucky I'll end up on the national team.