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
