Just over a year ago, our beloved Libby started the first-ever Women’s Soccer blog as a way to document our team’s year-round adventures, both on and off the field. But as we all know, “Mamma” Libby was among the nine seniors we had to say goodbye to at the end of the fall season. These seniors were our teammates, friends, and sisters, and they always will be. But we’re still grieving over the fact these hound pups aren’t with us every waking morning before the sun comes up, still shocked at how weak our end-of-practice breakdowns sound with 9 less voices, and still wondering, “Where the heck is the rest of our team?”
The truth is, we haven’t lost anyone. Ask any of the nine soon-to-be-graduates. These girls are still a part of our team, whether you call them alumni or Super Fans (cough, cough…Libby). They didn’t put in four preseasons, four seasons, and three spring seasons for nothing—who would? These girls did it for their love of the game, but most importantly, for the team. For that, we can’t thank them enough for all of their hard work, because we ARE the very team they worked for.
We ARE the team. It’s not the names on the roster that matter, but what we do together. And surely we all haven’t forgotten about what this team wants to do together. When this blog was born, Libby wrote of our team’s goals to “win every game, capture a GLVC Championship, earn an NCAA bid, win a National Championship, and most importantly grow as individuals and as a team.” These goals are still ours. Now, in the spring season, these goals mean one thing: 7am, the dark, sunless hour when we’re running and lifting. Sure, we’re not all morning people, but we’re all soccer players and we’re all a team; that’s what wakes us up. At 7am, we could be in bed, still sleeping and dreaming, but we’re doing something even better—we’re making our dreams a reality. And what better way to start the day than knowing we are one step closer to achieving our goals?
But speaking of morning workouts, we better be off to bed. By the way, this blog post is the baby of—you guessed it—Abby and Kait. We can only hope to make it half as cutesy and inspirational as Old Woman Libbith did in her blogging days. But still, it’s not our blog! It’s the team’s blog, our way of showing our journey...showing the world what it’s like to be a team with a dream and the means to achieve it.
GO HOUNDS!!!
Kait #5 and Abby #25
P.S.-Pardon this novel of a blog post...one of us might be an English major.