Thursday, April 1, 2010
At Rousseau Elementary School, I wasn’t the girl who played nice on the playground — I played rough. While my friends huddled together against the brick wall, playing make-believe games or gossiping, I preferred to be on the make-shift soccer field of boys. We played between two wire-caged goals, on a combination of dirt and gravel that somehow found its way into my bloody knees, causing frequent trips to the nurse post-recess for bandages.
My playground pastime soon became a serious sport. I found a home guarding the net as goalie. It was an unusual role for a girl of my small size, but I was fast, and thrived on being able to single-handedly save a game. My fearlessness didn’t come without cost. In fifth grade, I broke my right wrist in a collision with an offensive player. But she didn’t score on me.
My obsession continued on through the years, but as a teenager, soccer took a backseat to getting recruited to play college volleyball. I was forced to give up my first sport, but my soccer skills didn’t disappear.
In my high school’s weight training class we had a game day every week, and I was beyond ecstatic when we played kickball. As I lined up at home plate, I knew to point my toe down and kick with the inside of my foot to get the best result. The red rubber ball slowly rolled across the hardwood floor, taking one final bounce before I thrust my leg forward, sailing the ball off of my samba shoes. It hit above the black and gold lines painted on the back wall of the gym — home run. I leisurely jogged around the bases, gloating with an achievement I’d perfected in my youth.
Playground games don’t have to disappear with childhood. Check out Taylor’s story on page 13 about the kickball teams and organizations here in Lawrence. Sometimes, those silly games we play as kids can turn into an all-consuming passion for athletics. I will always be that competitive soccer player running for miles and wanting to be better than the boys. To think, it all started on a ragged patch of dirt on my elementary school playground.
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