For thirteen years of my life, I have dedicated countless hours to my love for soccer. My dad played in college, and when I started playing at the age of four, I knew I had stumbled upon something great. Soccer has always been something that grounded me. Every time I put on my shin guards or tightened the laces on my cleats, I knew I was at home. When I stepped on the field, every care in the world slipped away and I was lost in the play. Sprints were never fun, but even when sprints comprised most of practice I walked away from soccer happy. Therefore, I played on JV my freshman year and Varsity my sophomore year of high school. I never minded the long workouts or practice and game days. Everything was wonderful. I stopped playing soccer when I moved across the country, but I picked it back up again second semester of my senior year in high school. When I got to college, I knew I wanted to play Club Soccer at Denison.
My first year at Denison Club Soccer was terrible. I was the only girl to consistently come to practice, although others would come from time to time. However, the team had almost ruined the sport that I loved so dearly. There were a few guys on the team that always had to put me down. They would tell me to get off the field because “you suck at soccer.” Or they would never pass to me because I was a girl. It became hard to constantly look past these harsh words doled out to me two days a week every week during my freshman year of college. I stopped coming regularly. I would never skip a full week of practice, but I always seemed to find reasons not to come to one of the days. “I have too much homework today,” “I had a really stressful day, I need some rest,” and “there’s always the next practice” all seemed like better solutions than enduring the harshness of Club Soccer. This behavior continued for my first year. I was not bad at soccer. I was definitely not the best, but definitely not the worst either. So, I became sick of having to deal with their comments when the malicious comments seemed to be based on nothing other than my gender.
But one day, I was thinking to myself and realized that I did not want to let these mean people control me. I am in charge of myself, and it was not up to a few sexist boys to ruin the sport that I love and have dedicated myself to for 12 years. So I returned to practice. I didn’t take no for an answer. I asserted myself back into the club. Eventually, I started to win the respect of some of the guys there. And I think that is why I am now Vice President of Denison Club Soccer. I will not stand to the side as others get to control how I perceive myself and the things I love. Still to this day, I have to appear extra tough and prove myself each practice to show that I am just as good as any boy, but it is much less extreme. I am just as good as anyone else at Club Soccer. I refused to be pushed aside because of my gender, so I took control.