By Cami Yee
Throughout my life, I have participated in a plethora of hobbies, passions, and activities. However, none have made me laugh, cry, or smile as much as soccer.. The sport has been a part of my life ever since I can remember, and I am forever grateful for the life lessons, best friends, and happiness I have received from it.
I started playing soccer at age four, exhibiting excellent athletic abilities. Holding hands with my teammates and picking the daisies that grew on the field (while the game was still going on), I was the ideal athlete. My recreational soccer career was one of greatness: many orange slices were eaten, tears shed, and complaints endured by my poor parents. Although, I did end up scoring once on a rainy day, hugging my mom on the sidelines immediately afterward.
I began competitive soccer in 2015. I still remember the nerve-wracking anxiety I felt trying out for teams.I was so scared of all of the other girls because I had never taken soccer seriously before. I tried out for Bay Area Barcelona, San Jose Earthquakes, and Santa Clara Sporting, choosing the latter as my first club team. Dressed in green and white horizontal stripes, my team took to the field, dribbling and dashing around. The club specialized in footwork. No matter what, we always began the day with toe-taps, hooks, and boxes to improve our skills. As a result of this rigorous routine, I found great success at future clubs because of the technical abilities I mastered at Sporting.
The club also emphasized the ability to juggle. Essentially, juggling is “the act of keeping the ball off the ground by using any part of the body except the hands and arms.” As a eight year old kid with horrible hand/foot-eye coordination, I found juggling to be an immense challenge, consistently dropping or accidentally punting the ball. One night during practice, our coach told us we weren’t allowed to leave until we got 25 juggles. I, with tremendous difficulty, was able to complete this task after 20 minutes but was left traumatized from the stress. I began dedicating time to myself to practicing juggling so I would never feel like that again. I juggled and juggled, breaking dishes and hurting my ankle, but making progress as I practiced. I persisted, and finally, at age 12, reached my all time best score, 1,348 juggles. Over the years, juggling has evolved from a stressor into one of my favorite activities.
Through Sporting, I also met one of the most important people in my life: my best friend, Reiko. We started at Sporting, but moved to MVLA together, continuing to play on the same team for years. What started as a simple teammate camaraderie flourished into a sisterhood and I am forever grateful. In the ten years that I’ve known her, we have laughed, traveled, cried, and smiled together, forming irreplaceable and core memories that we will keep with us for the rest of our lives.
Throughout my soccer journey, I experienced different dynamics through my different teams, such as Sporting, MVLA, San Jose Surf, and then MVLA again. I moved to MVLA (Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club) in 2018 and found great success. I scored many goals and I joke that it was the height of my soccer playing career. I had never felt as confident as I did in those seasons.I then decided to move to San Jose Surf, in an attempt to improve my skills. At Surf, I learned the importance of fitness. Our coach placed a heavy emphasis on fitness and we participated in the beep test, mile, and other evaluations on a monthly basis to keep up our athletic abilities. During my time at MVLA, I was taught the value of possession and the art of the game, something that I still keep close to this day.
I have a tremendous amount of love for soccer and it has become a part of my identity. I have learned dozens of valuable lessons from the sport and I am so immensely grateful for everything that I have received as a result of playing soccer.