Remember the Spartans

As I walked on to the field for Varsity try-outs as a freshman year I did it with only one person I knew. The other girls on the field were merely competition and as a new face I was nothing more than fresh meat. As the week of tryouts came to an end five freshmen were chosen and a new team was born.

My first year of being a Spartan was marked by defeat and disappointment. The second year marked the departure of all but one of the freshman I had originally joined the team with. And this was the year that a bunch of girls became a team.

A team is so much more than a group of girls kicking a ball around every day after school. It is a group of friends that are more like sisters. During the day at school each girl may hang out with different people and may bicker during practice but once on the field it is all for one and one for all. There is no group of people that continuously fight for the same cause. Together each individual practices to become great and plays to win. And through all that a bond is made. A bond unlike any other.

A Spartan is defined as courageous in the face of pain, danger, or adversity. And as the P.V.H.S Ladies Spartans Soccer team we came together over my years in high school and became a family. We showed our courage every time we stepped on the field and we consoled each other each time we played our hearts out and failed to come out on top.

I played my four years and now that my team and myself are gone there is a new group of Spartans that takes the field every week and I wish them all the same memories my team and I had. From day one when I stepped on to that field with only one person I knew and entered a group of girls I didn’t know. After my final game I walked off the field with the same girl, now we stood as co-captains saying good-bye to the “group” that had become our family.

Now every year we go back to that field and play an Alumni game against the new team. The experience brings us back together once a year for a reunion like no other because in what other reunion do you get to do the same thing you did with your old friends all over again. We go out and give those young girls a run for the money in the spirit of a good time. But although we all start off the day complaining about how out of shape we are and how we are just going to have fun, as soon as we hit that field we are a team once again. We go all out and take it just as serious as the games we played as students. It is a rush that can only happen when a family gets together and does what they do best. Because no matter how long we have been apart when we come back we are a team again. And as Spartans we play with courage in the face of pain, danger or adversity.

Because whether we have a game every year or not we will always remember the Spartans.