SOCCER: WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA
New Beginnings
Moving from Connecticut to California for my dad's job when I was 9 was very hard on me. I missed my home, my tiny school, and my friends, most of whom were kids I had known ever since Pre-K.
For my whole life up to that time, I had had a predictable routine. I had pretty much always gone to the same schools with my siblings. We had had the same friends for years. And we had our favorite local places where our family liked to go on the weekends.
Moving to California left me feeling uprooted in so many ways. Nothing was familiar.
I'll never forget the first day of 5th Grade at our new elementary school. When Mom dropped my twin brother Dayton and me off, all the students went to assemble on the blacktop according to pre-assigned numbers.
I noticed immediately that Dayton and I had different numbers.
Mom stayed as long as parents were allowed to, and tried her best to encourage and reassure us, telling us everything would be okay and it would all feel better and more normal soon.
But right after she left, all I could focus on was how much bigger the campus was than our tiny Connecticut school, located in a small town where we loved Ashley's ice cream, cheeseburgers after school at the diner on Main Street, and spending hours carefully choosing books and cracking them open during lunch and cupcakes at RJ Julia's cafe.
Here, I didn't know where anything was, who anyone was, or what was going to happen next. It also didn't help that the huge throng of students pouring in, laughing and talking excitedly about what they did over the summer, all seemed to know each other.
I felt both intimidated and depressed. The huge knot in the pit of my stomach got worse when Dayton and I had to split off in different, unknown directions, after years of having the same homeroom teachers or, at most, being only a few doors apart.
In that moment, I felt sure that California would never feel like home and that I would never develop friendships here as close as those I'd had in Connecticut.
Soccer proved me wrong, and it is one of the reasons I have self-confidence today.
New Friends
It turned out that the day mom found our house out here, she had also learned about the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) from banners posted at the elementary and middle school.
She had visited the schools to take pictures for us to try to get us excited about the move and interested in where we would be going.
Both my brothers and I had played soccer back at our old school in Connecticut. Mom registered us for AYSO to give us the chance to meet new people and get better acclimated to California more quickly.
She still says that was one of the best decisions she ever made. Our whole family agrees.
The first team I joined was "The Blue Lightning Stars, a Core team. But after the first two games, the coaches met and decided to move me a level higher to the Extra team. There, I played Striker and sometimes Goalkeeper for four years with "The PV Legends," learning from Coach Tim, whose daughter Sophia was also on our team.
Coach Tim was encouraging, patient, and strategic. He regularly took the whole team out for ice cream. He rewarded us with extra scoops whenever we won a shut out.
Because Dayton, my older brother Jackson, and I played soccer, our whole family made new friends quickly. We all enjoyed being part of something bigger than ourselves. We had a weekend routine and home fields. Our parents became good friends. Plus, we learned our way around California quickly.
I'll never forget the feeling of winning games through penalty kicks, or our runs to Baskin-Robbins with Coach Tim and our parents after a big win. One of our biggest rivals was Beverly Hills, so winning The Founder's Cup against them was especially meaningful.
Our team had started making reservations for a tournament in Hawaii. But then COVID hit, and L.A. became the epicenter of the pandemic. By the time we could start playing again, some of the original team members had moved on.
I played soccer with Coach Tim until my Freshman year of high school, which was his last year coaching. Whenever I see Sophia at school, I remember those special times with her and my other soccer friends. I'll always appreciate the many hours of support and encouragement her dad gave us, and how he helped us feel at home.
