My Daughter the Jock

I was never good at sports. I tried a lot of different sports growing up, mostly because I went to a small country school and it just seemed like everyone was playing something...

So I played softball (and played pitcher - which to this day terrifies me - my coach must have been either very nice or very stupid.)

I played volleyball, coached by the very skinny Ms. Twitty, who made us lunge across the gym for two hours one afternoon. To this day, I've never had such sore legs. My stint with volleyball was when I really learned how to pray. I had to pray every time it was my turn to serve, "Lord, please help it go over the net."

I played basketball. I was the Center, because I was tall. That was my only basketball talent. Being tall. It didn't help me out that much. I do remember that I had a rival of sorts. Terrie House, who went to Olney (a school smaller than ours) was their Center and I remember having heard terrible things about her... so I was determined to beat her at the tip off. Terrie and I became great friends in high school and we never spoke of our basketball rivalry. Probably because it was a figment of my imagination.

In high school, I was a cheerleader. I was a good cheerleader, because I was really loud and I had lots of school spirit and I could remember lots of cheers. But I always felt like I was faking it because I couldn't do a cartwheel. And besides, I was the base for all the pyramids. The big girls are always the bases. Bases are necessary, but not nearly as fun to watch as the teeny-tiny girls who get to climb to the top of the pyramid.

I am finally able, at age 37, to embrace my non-athletic self. But the truth is, I suck at sports. I'm okay with it. And I've learned that I can be fit without being an athlete. Because honestly, there isn't an athletic bone in my body.

So how in the world I gave birth to a soccer star, I'll never know.

But I did.

S. started playing soccer in first grade. She's been fortunate and has been able to play with the same group of girls since then. There are six girls who have played together for four years. And they're great friends. Do they win? Not all the time. This season, not once so far. But they love each other. And they're learning the fundamentals of the game. And while many of them are sort of like I would have been if I'd ever played soccer, it doesn't seem to matter much to any of them. They have fun playing together. And they support one another, whether they're great players or athletically challenged players.

My daughter, however, is not one of the awkward ones.

She's not out there feeling like the athletic impostor that I always knew I was.

My daughter is an athlete.

Will she continue to play through junior high and high school?

I don't know.

I don't really care.

I'm just so pleased for her that she has confidence I never had in a pair of cleats and with a ball between her feet.

Good for her.