Jeanne Farris' Soccer Story

I know Jeanne from playing with her in my first soccer tournament in Puerto Vallarta, and again in a soccer tournament in Las Vegas. In town, we play against each other. But we’ve formed a bond because we’ve been on a number of road trips to visit a soccer teammate who no longer can play soccer due to illness and lives four hours away from us.

Jeanne was already an athlete before she found soccer. She had played tennis and golf before moving to the area in 1979. Two years after she moved to the area, she met a lady who played for the Fairfax Women’s Soccer Association (FWSA). The chance encounter happened when Jeanne took her son to a try-out for an Annandale Boys Club travel soccer team. The lady suggested women’s soccer to Jeanne. The women’s league had been in existence for five years. After watching a few games, Jeanne agreed to give soccer a try. As Jeanne tells it, “The rest is history.” Jeanne was at the “rock parties” to develop the Pine Ridge fields and attended many other groundbreaking events. Since joining, she has served on the FWSA board many times, as a division commissioner and as an editor for the FWSA newsletters.

At the beginning, Jeanne played with a team called “Charge!!” When this team moved up an age division, the name got changed to “Wingz.” Over the years, she has played with many other teams, including Shadies, Tide, Wildcats, Midlife Crisis, Still Kickin, and Genesis, the team she’s currently playing with. She has been to numerous out-of-state tournaments with different teams, including several Veteran’s Cup tournaments in different age groups (50+, 55+, 60+, and 65+), San Diego’s Prime of Life, Las Vegas Friendship, York, Puerto Vallarta, California Senior Games, and National Seniors’ Games. She has won many medals, including a Gold, and prizes such as T-shirts and beach towels. She played in the “first ever" 55+ tournament in San Diego and the "first ever" 65+ tournament in the Veteran's Cup in Virginia Beach.  She also played co-ed soccer for approximately ten years and has been playing indoor women’s soccer since the early 1980's.

Jeanne has had a fair share of injuries over the years. Some types of injuries occurred more than once and some required the use of crutches for several weeks. She has experienced a torn right quad, a torn left hamstring, a fractured right wrist, a fractured left wrist, a fractured right ankle, and torn ankle ligaments. She has had a meniscus repair for the right knee and a back surgery to fix four bulging discs. Once each of her injuries healed, she went back to playing.

Now at age 74, she says she has slowed down a lot. She is still the team representative to her 50+ outdoor team. She plays in the goal when the regular goal keeper can’t play, otherwise she assumes a midfield or defense position. She says she loves watching the younger players from the more secure keeper position!

Jeanne appreciates that lifelong friendships have been formed on the soccer field.  She asks, “Where else could you find similar attitudes – the love of the soccer game?”

                                                                                 At the Virginia Beach Vet's Cup 2015

Ruth Walton's Soccer Story

I first knew Ruth from playing with her on my first soccer tournament in Puerto Vallarta. Since then, we’ve played together a few more times, gone to a funeral together, and bumped into each other now and then. Ruth no longer plays soccer, but she loves soccer so much and cannot stay away from it. Now she devotes her time to promote the Fairfax Women’s Soccer Association (FWSA) by recruiting and training players, especially for the youngest age group. She is currently a member of the FWSA Recruitment Committee. She is very involved in organizing new teams. She feels that soccer is a game that gives beginners a chance to have fun from day one, as long as they can run and kick. She still comes to the field to watch her former team or the new teams she helps put together play.

Ruth has served as the head commissioner for FWSA and was instrumental in the community effort that turned Pine Ridge, an unused school site, into permanent parkland with three soccer fields and three T-ball fields. Lots of fund-raising activities and hard labor followed the groundbreaking in 1983 to culminate in the Opening Day Ceremonies for Pine Ridge on October 14, 1989. In recognition of Ruth’s contribution, the Fairfax County Park Authority named one of the three soccer fields for Ruth Walton. Ruth is very proud of this legacy. She enjoys watching FWSA teams and numerous young children play on the same field she used to play. She wants to see these young athletes get as much pleasure from soccer as she has.

It was in September of 1976 that Ruth and a number of soccer moms (moms of soccer players) decided to form a women’s soccer team. Ruth was in her late 30’s then. She had played tennis before, but had not played soccer. Neither did any member of her team. They joined the FWSA which already played one season. There were only three other teams in the league in the fall of 1976.

Over the years, Ruth has played in many soccer tournaments and has assumed many positions on the field. She has played both defense and offense. She loved scoring as a forward, especially by heading the ball into the goal. The most memorable goal was the one she scored in the last game she played. That was in a tournament in Bellingham, Washington. She boasts of playing in the first ever soccer tournament for women over 55 and the first ever tournament for women over 60, both in San Diego. She played other tournaments in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington State, and Puerto Vallarta. She calls the Puerto Vallarta tournament the “high point” because she played with a great group of “wild and crazy” women who had fun together. She remembers taking a wonderful tour by a local expert and having dinner with her teammates in a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Ruth stopped playing when she was 70, but she says she still dreams about playing, despite several injuries along the way: a pulled quad, a pulled hamstring, a broken toe, a contusion in her thigh (which caused a pint of blood to seep down inside her leg), a torn meniscus, an eye hemorrhage, and numerous scrapes and bruises. After each injury, she tried to take as little time off as possible. None of the injuries ever caused her to think of giving up the game. In fact, soccer became a life-long passion for Ruth. She sees the value of soccer besides the physical exercise it offers: the fun and camaraderie among teammates. She has seen players supporting each other as they go through difficult health issues or personal problems. She feels that team spirit and occasional life-long friendships are among the most important aspects of soccer. And soccer even gives them the chance to see new places and learn new things when they go on tournaments.

                                                                                       At a Las Vegas tournament

Kathy Straight's Classics Story

Kathy is a Classics. So am I. Kathy started with Classics long before I did. I’d wanted to compile stories of Classics ladies. I sent out a questionnaire to the Classics players, sort of. Kathy was the first to give me an account of her soccer story. I’d like to share it here.

Kathy was recruited into soccer by a lady named Kipper. Kathy thought Kipper was a founder of the Fairfax Women’s Soccer Association (FWSA) in Fairfax County, but is not totally sure. It was in the 1970’s, the time I began my life journey in this new country of mine. Kipper had to do heavy recruiting at the beginning. She was a member of the same church that Kathy attended. She convinced Kathy and Chris, Kathy’s very good friend, to give soccer a try. Chris, being German, knew something about soccer, whereas Kathy had no clue. The two friends agreed to play. They were both in their 30’s at the time. They were assigned to the same team called Sunshiners. Kathy had so much fun at her first game that she fell down laughing. The next week, she was told there would be no laughing on the field. That was the ref being stern, laying down the rules. Kathy retold the story with a twinkle in her eye.

In the late 1990’s, the first tryout was held to recruit players for a team to go to a soccer tournament in San Diego. Kathy was amazed that she was chosen. Seven of her fellow teammates, and now her good friends, also made the team. They played. They had a taste of soccer tournaments. They wanted more! Kathy recalled discussing with her friend Chris the possibility of forming a select team of over-50-year-old women to play in future soccer tournaments, while they were pushing their grandchildren’s strollers. The movement was started with a meeting hosted by Chris at her house. They were able to recruit players from other local soccer teams within the league. Thus Team Classics was born. Although the players were in their 50’s, there was no 50-and-over division in FWSA at that time, so they went to 50-and-over tournaments, but played in the 40-and-over division within FWSA. At some point, it was time for Classics to add younger players to the roster. That’s when I came in. Kathy said I was the first “baby” to be selected to join the team.

Since I’ve joined Classics, the team underwent several changes. There were more “young” players added. Then there was a change in coaches, which simultaneously resulted in a loss of about half of the players. Then there were splits and regroups. Eventually the team moved up an age group. FWSA currently has 50-and-over and 60-and-over divisions, in addition to open, 30-and-over, and 40-and-over divisions. We’ve come a long way.

Kathy has played soccer in two international tournaments, a number of tournaments in San Diego, one Veterans Cup, and one Senior Olympics Games in Palo Alto at the Stanford soccer fields. She likes the fact she can tell people she played at Stanford. One of the San Diego games was at the U.S. Olympic fields at Chula Vista so she can say she played there, where she almost expired from the heat. Asked about memorable moments playing in tournaments, she recalled the time she was taken out of the game because her coach didn’t think she played well, but she thought she did. She took out her sorrow in the hotel bar that night, singing and dancing. She was happy that a teammate joined in. She also remembered having terrific support from the sidelines in many tournament games.

Besides soccer, Kathy also played basketball. She played basketball in the Senior Games in Louisville, KY in 2007. Kathy had surgery for a meniscus tear when she was 69. She is not sure if that was from playing soccer or basketball. She quit basketball before quitting soccer.

When Kathy turned 76, she decided to stay with Classics, although many of her fellow teammates from the beginning had either moved away or “retired” from soccer. Kathy chose to play only when the team was ahead. Otherwise, she was happy to sit on the sideline and cheer for the team. She served as the team representative for many seasons. Currently, she no longer plays soccer. She says she’s satisfied to retire from soccer with one international goal.

Kathy says soccer was an opening for her to release stress, and at the same time, it gave her so much fun. She played soccer during the time she had to take care of four young children, one with a disability. Soccer gave her an opportunity to do what she loved to do - run and challenge the opposition and make lasting friends. It was at an indoor game in 1997 when a teammate asked if anyone wanted to go to Paris. She was quick to say yes. That was the first “just-for-fun” trip she made with soccer friends, and the fun continues to this day.

                                                      Getting ready for Mama Mia at National Theater

How I Found Soccer and Classics

I’d been in the new country a little over four years. I was newly married. I’d recently graduated from college. Even more recently, I’d quit my entry-level job in a medical research laboratory in a prestigious university with nice bosses to move to a new town in a new state – unemployed and not knowing anyone in town besides my husband.

I wanted to work, but work was hard to find. The majority of jobs in the area I was living in required U.S. citizenship, which I didn’t have at the time. I would have to wait another year to be eligible for citizenship, but by moving to another state, that set me back another year. Thus I would not be eligible for citizenship for another two years.

I looked for work in the want ads of the daily newspaper. I eventually found a job working in a local hospital, assisting a radiologist in a laboratory setting. But not right away. I found something else first. One day I saw a want ad for women’s soccer. The ad was from the coach of a local women’s soccer team in need of more players.

Where I grew up, sports were not promoted, especially not for girls. That is not to say there were no sports for women, but the opportunities were limited. Within my family environment, opportunities were even more limited. I grew up with no extracurricular activities. Time not in school was spent helping my mother in her bookstore, and doing housework and homework. That is not to say education was not important. It was important enough that I got to be enrolled in extra mathematics and foreign language classes outside of my regular high school. But physical activities and anything outside of “core” subjects, such as music or arts, were not encouraged, or even were prohibited. We were scolded for singing, even though our bookstore sold lyric sheets. Singing did not bring honor to the family, as an A+ report card would.

So I’d never played sports in my life, even though I grew up craving to learn how to swim or how to play tennis. I’d never known soccer. I had no idea what it meant or what it involved. I am lucky that I’m married to an open-minded man who encourages me to try new things and who doesn’t think women should be limited in their dreams and endeavors. He thinks those who exclude women in anything limit themselves to only half of the population of mankind. He told me that I should try soccer because I had nothing to lose.

I called the number on the want ad. The team accepted me. Bless them. The team had a mixture of younger and older players. We had a mother-and-daughter pair. I played with the team for two seasons. I learned a lot, even though I could not master the art of heading the ball. I even had an admirer in a teammate. She played offense and she told me I always looked so cool and calm in my defense. I had the time of my life. I didn’t want to quit.

But life changed. My husband and I were to move back to the state where we were married to go back to school, to be near my parents. We were about to have our first child at the same time. I insisted on playing while being pregnant, but it was clear I wasn’t as speedy. I had to leave the team. I was sad. But being a new mother while attending graduate school kept me busy.

I had two more children. Being a mother  while working outside of the home kept me away from playing soccer myself, but I never stopped loving the sport. I enrolled all my three children in soccer. I did not just give them soccer. They also participated in other activities such as swimming, skating, ballet, T-ball, gymnastics, scouting, music, and arts.

When I felt I needed to be home more to be with the children, I cut my work schedule from full time to part time, and eventually I stayed home full time. I went back to soccer myself, while my children were still playing the same sport. Sixteen years after leaving soccer behind, I joined a women’s league. I played with Fury at first. We had a coach. He also coached Classics. He introduced me to the latter in the second year of my playing, and that’s when I became a Classics player. I continued to play with both Fury and Classics for many years. I still play with Classics, although the team’s roster has changed over the years. Classics also has moved up an age group.

Being a Classics player opened up new horizons. I started to play indoors and go to tournaments with other Classics players. My first tournament was in Puerto Vallarta. I ended up going there three times. But more than soccer, Classics gave me a camaraderie I still treasure today. Some of these women were instrumental in forming the league. Most of them did not grow up playing soccer. They were soccer moms who formed teams to be able to play soccer themselves. They traveled to compete in tournaments and have brought home medals. They went back a long way together and formed a tight-knit group of friends. They embraced me and included me in their circle.

I love soccer. I am grateful that I’ve found soccer. I am grateful for the team that took me in when I was uncertain in a new town. I can’t imagine another sport that would give me so much fun and aerobic exercise at the same time. Soccer has given me an outlet and helped me relieve tension and cope with life difficulties when I needed it. I am glad to be part of the Classics story, the story of strong women who make things happen and who know how to have fun. They are an inspiration.