Hannah the Hillcrest goalie?

I don’t know if it has been mentioned in the past but for the first half of our time in Nigeria, Emily and I played soccer with the neighborhood kids on the field in front of our house. Emily played a lot more than I did, but whenever I did play I really enjoyed the game. Recently it has become so busy that it’s hard to find the time to get out and play with the boys but I still enjoy the game. Anyways, jumping back to the present, soccer tryouts were this week. I can’t really call them tryouts because the team has a no cut policy, but needless to say I made the team. I actually first kind of got the idea when Coach Tolar approached me at school and asked me if I would be willing to be goalie for the girls team. Michelle Palmer, the girl who usually is goalie for the Hillcrest girl’s team, has an injured knee this year and consequently did not come out for the season. So after Coach planted the little seed in my head I got to thinking about trying out and decided why not? There’s a first time for everything right?

So, Wednesday was the first day of practice and it was pretty fun. The field players did their own drills while I did goalie drills. I got out of a bunch of running. Being a goalie is pretty tough on your body though. Just so I could be up to par, I did a couple pre season practices with the goalie from the boy’s varsity team. After one afternoon I was pretty cut up from the ground we practiced diving on. But I guess it’s just part of the job.

But what’s even more crazy is that it looking like (this is based entirely on my own observations, so I can’t say it with 100% certainty) I could be starting goalie for the Hillcrest girl’s team. Our first game is in about 2 weeks, which gives me that long to get good at being goalie. I just hope I can live up to being a starter. So far I have shown my newness to the sport very well. So, we’ll see.

Hannah (18)