The Lady Vikings
The First Generation of Girls Soccer
“There’s no better feeling than stepping out on the field and stunning them all by doing what none of them thought you could do.” — Ashlyn Harris
In 2019, two years before I found out about Vocal, I was a part of the Lady Vikings (a soccer team) at Norland Senior High. Lady Vikings was the first girls' soccer team to my knowledge in the history of the school. Teenage boys dominated sports at our school. Most of our school would come to support their games, wearing the team colors, and cheering for them but when it came to us, it was not that much love. The boys who played basketball, football, wrestling, and soccer were most likely to be successful.
We had our difficulties, but we managed to make it through. Sometimes we did win and that made me proud. Sometimes we lost and that made me sad but there are days that you must lose to win all over again. I was not the best player and there were times that I wished I were. Sometimes I would blame myself for why we did not win because I felt like I was not good enough.
There were girls on the team that I secretly intimidated by because of how good they were. Those girls could have gone to the big teams, and they did not need to stay with us, but they did with the grace of their heart. We had three coaches, only two for two years and only one for the last year that I played. Coach Alba, who was my history teacher and Mr. Hernandez, my math teacher and Coach Paulino, my art teacher. Coach Alba would always stick with the girls that were available for practice because it did not matter to him whether they were good or bad but our dedication to the team.
One time, Alejandra (who I considered to be one of our best players) said something that Alba did not like.
“But I play better than most of these girls,”Alejandra said, proudly.
I cannot blame her for thinking highly of herself because she did play better than me. I liked her as a player, she was a nice person. I enjoyed practicing with her and holding conversations with her. She was either Hispanic or Latina, but the first time I met her, I thought she was white until she started to speak. I played soccer because my mom wanted me to do an extra circular activity for once and Norland did not have tennis.
This team was filled with many different girls with different personalities. Another time, we played a game against the boys at the school, and it started to rain but we continued to play. Some of the girls disliked playing against the boys because of how they played but that is how teenage boys are and we cannot fix them. My experience of being on this team was good, funny, and sometimes frustrating. At our last game before we started to play, I gave the girls each a gift to show how much I appreciated them. Coach Alba loved that I did this and told my mother that it made the girls feel special and that may have caused us to win the final game.
On that day, it made me happy to hear that from him, knowing the power of my gifts could do such a thing. I do not know how the new team is holding up today, but I hope they are doing their thing. I pray that they make it their goal to become even bigger than us and most of all, I am honored to be a part of the first generation of girls' soccer. Note: A player and coach are not seen in the photo because I do not remember why they were not there. I also forgot the name of the assistant coach.
Question of the Day: Did you play a sport in school? What was the sport? What was the name of the team?
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Janay Ealey
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