Women's World Cup: Hometown Hero

   

 It surprises people that I played Varsity Soccer in high school.  Some people passively acknowledge their disbelief by making vague comments about “athletic people,” of which I am clearly not considered. Others just come right out and say it, “God, I would NEVER think that YOU played sports, you just don’t…uhhh…like seem like the type.” But I did, I played three seasons of varsity sports and in my senior year I was captain of  two: soccer and lacrosse.  Believe me...I don’t say this to brag.  My graduating class was 42 people, roughly half of us were girls.  Also, we had more than one sport to choose from… so, despite having a lazy eye and being legally blind without my glasses, I was, at the time, considered one of the most athletic people in my tiny Private School bubble.  

The weird thing about a small private school is that you have many “athletes” like myself who love the game and have a healthy competitive nature.  But then there are others with honest to goodness insane talent. Truly Big Fish in small ponds. But none as big as one that arose from our rival school, Christian Heritage. As the Women’s World Cup races on and I continually see her on TV, being an all star, and I marvel that I really and truly know her.  I mean, not on like a heart to heart level, she did go to our rival school after all but being from such a small world, I was good friends with her cousin and my youngest sister was inseparable from hers at summer camp. Our parents were friends as well.  

It’s surreal for me how  far she has come. She has flown out of the small pond we both came from and end up dominating in the real freaking ocean.  It makes me feel proud and jealous and just all around amazed that an every day person, real flesh and blood is capable of the super human feats we see on TV.  

Unless you also went to private school in Connecticut you may not know that I am talking about the tough as nails Alyssa Naeher.  Now, I will admit, when I first met her on the pitch I was less enthusiastic than I am now, watching from my couch.  

In my senior season of soccer two eighth grade twins were allowed onto our rival school’s soccer team. This was not unheard of since our schools were small and often lacked numbers.  But these two were much more than numbers. The twins did not appear threatening at first.  They were identical, short and skinny with bowl cuts that never seemed to fall into their eyes. They were wiry, tough and absolutely unstoppable.  One of them played goalie and one striker (actually they both probably played both. I honestly don’t know.)  We often made jokes that they’d have to get sick or hurt for us to even have a chance.   For years they dominated our league.  No-one scored against the goalie, no-one could stop the striker.  My younger sister played them without success, then my youngest sister as well. Finally, they went off to college and the rest of the league returned to status quo.  

But seriously, watching her rise to national and international level is inspirational.  She was young and talented but that is never enough.  She had setbacks, she had losses, she had to wait and wait and wait….but she never gave up.  And the hard work, the day in day out dedication is paying off.  I love to watch her play and for all us New Englanders I think she truly deserves the title of  Hometown Hero.