Soccer Shady Returns

Some of you may or may not know how my nickname ‘Shady’ came about. No, it’s has nothing to do with my personality, sexual nature or love of Eminem. It derives from my best friend’s Emily Strinden and Catherine Allen – two of the most outspoken soccer player’s I’ve ever played with. I grew up with these two and became even closer because we played club soccer and high school soccer together – extracurricular activities that take up all of your adolescent life if you know anything about Texas sports. If you don’t, high school soccer is played from January to April. Club soccer is played April to June and August to December. Between June and August, you are expected to go to soccer camps and train with your club team. So in short, we take sports seriously in Texas.

When Emily, Catherine and I grew stronger as players, so did our leadership skills. By senior year, we wanted to develop a team that was close. After all, we lived and breathed soccer, as did our teammates. As any team does when they bond, they develop nicknames for each other. Because the name ‘Shadiyah’ is so long and difficult to say while in play, Emily and Catherine took up the shortened version ‘Shady’. From when I was a bartender at Fordham to teaching in Seoul, Korea to doing PR/Marketing at Taurus Marketing in Sydney, the name has stuck and is my preferred nickname.

This week, I had the opportunity to bring this name back as I joined my first women’s club soccer team since being on U-18 Lufkin FC in 2004. It had been 3 years since I graduated from Fordham in 2008 where I founded and captained Team Mabuckyao, Fordham University Intramural co-ed champions all 4 years. Being new to Sydney and looking to meet people who enjoy my passion for soccer, I figured it was about time to get on a team. Just my luck, registrations were happening in February and my 20 year old interns at Taurus were giving me all the information I needed. I blindly emailed the Eastern Suburbs commissioner who placed my name on an open list. Luckily, one girl contacted me saying she was starting a team. As everyone began to go to their practices, my interns kept asking me how my team was. After 2 weeks of email silence, I figured this girl backed out. I blindly wrote 2 coaches and asked if they needed players and they did. I provided a description of my past experience and now I’m a bit regretful because now they’ll think I’m stellar. Both replied with enthusiasm. Before, I had the problem of not having a team at all. Now I had the problem of choosing between two. I ended up picking Maccabi FC because they trained in Rushcutter’s Bay, a short 10 minute walk from my apartment. The other team practiced in North Bondi, an hour long trip from my neighborhood. My one hesitation was that this team was formed traditionally as a Jewish club.

On Thursday, I met my team for the end of their practice to pick up my uniform. I was greeted by a sweet group of young girls – I’m talking mostly 19 years old. And they were all Jewish. Feeling a little out of place, I decided to talk to the coach, who is Brazilian. He said the team was pretty average with a third being good, a third being okay, and the last third with very little experience. This made me wonder where I fit into the thirds. I swallowed my insecurity and thought about the reason why I decided to join – to play soccer with no matter who the team was or how good they were. Luckily we are royal blue and white, a tribute to Emily’s alma matter University of Kansas where she became captain of her Division 1 soccer team. I took home my new Nike uniform and felt proud. I did pay $450 for registration fees after all.

Today, we played our first game. I was picked up by Julie, our manager and resident soccer mom. She reminds me of the suburban Jewish moms on Long Island, completely devoted to her children, yet trying to act young and understand the partying ways of 19 year old girls. We arrived at Alexandria School Park near Redfern station in Sydney where two boys’ teams were playing the 9am game. We warmed up with drills, small sided scrimmage and stretches. This was the first time these girls had seen my touch a ball and I did show off a little leaving me exhausted in just the pre-game warm-up.

Half-time Break

Large Barren Soccer Field

Covering This Girl & Scolded by the Ref for Wearing a Stud in my Ear

Watching My Shot Go Slightly Wide

Julie, the Manager & Renato, the Coach and Carl, the Assistant Coach

With summer winding down in Sydney, the weather was still a scorching 27 Celsius. We played a full 120 x 75 yard field with 45 minute halves. Ouch! During the first half I had 3 shots on goal, but none converted. Playing center midfield (a position I’m not used to), I did show off some of the famous Mike Fray (Lufkin FC soccer coach for 4 years) footwork, which impressed both my teammates and sideliners. We ended the half at 2-0. I quietly and carefully sipped my water hoping to not be too full for the second half and too pooped from the first. We went back onto the field and I lost my stamina 20 minutes in. My coach saw this and put me back in center back position, another position I’m not used to. In the end, we won the game 4-1 with no subs and no goalkeeper. We had two inexperienced goalies volunteer to keep goal anyhow.

One downfall for my performance today is that most of my teammates have played together. So, it was tough to get them to pass to me because they aren’t used to my voice or my presence. The other downfall is my lack of sprinting and stamina, but I have to remember that I’m nearly 7 years older than these girls. Overall, I am proud of the way I played. With all the skills I learned over the years, I showed my young team mature playing style; fancy footwork, playing to space, kicking corners, and shooting goals. The season lasts until August. It will be very interesting to see how I develop over this time. With a 4-1 win today, I’m thinking Maccabi FC is a good contender for the finals. Now, I just need to figure how to deal with my sore feet full of blisters.