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