A Disappointing End to a Great Career

Meg's soccer career officially ended tonight at the sectional semi-finals at Westview.  In saying that it truly ended for her about a month ago when her coach told her that he "wanted to give more playing time to those who didn't come in the summer so that they could catch up."  We realized then that her hard work in the offseason and her performance on the field didn't really matter.  Thus, last night her skill at passing, nine goals and five assists sat on the bench with her as she watched her high school career come to an end when Westview scored with three minutes to go in double overtime.

It would be easy to dwell on the disappointments that she had endured these past two years - the lack of support when she transferred, being completely ignored on the bench and the dwindling playing time in a sport inwhich she had preformed well.  It would also be easy to argue with those who said "she scored those nine goals in easy games" by reminding them that  "she scored two goals against LCA who was one of the best teams that we played" or that "only one other player scored more than her with no one else even close."  Those comments would fall on deaf ears, however, and in the end would not make anyone feel better.

Therefore, I have quickly turned to the positives of Meg playing soccer for the past fourteen seasons. From the time she got stung by a bee after eating an snow cone at halftime and wore a bandaid on her lip so she could keep playing to the two LYC championships she was instrumental in helping to win.  She scored the very first Wawasee middle school girls goal and left Wawasee as their second leading scorer.  This year she was voted captain, finished as the second leading scorer and made a multitude of friends along the way.  The best part of Meg playing soccer, however, was the bond that she created with her Dad.  They created so many positive memories across the years and I will be forever thankful that he could be her coach for as long as he was.  I thoroughly loved seeing them on the field together.  No one can take that away.