As many of you know, I’ve been a dedicated soccer mom for more than a dozen years, navigating the ups and downs of girls’ soccer from the adorable days of AYSO U5, through seemingly endless club soccer driving and drama, Olympic development optimism, ID camps, showcase tournaments, and school team city championships (four!) But this year was different.
My daughter tore her ACL early in the fall, had surgery, and spent 6 months in physical therapy, unable to play. Hoping to be back toward the end of the spring high school season, she supported her Lane Tech Varsity teammates at nearly every practice, meeting, team outing, and game…from the bench. I think I was more impressed by this than by any of the amazing things I’ve seen her do on the field.
What’s this got to do with wolves?
The Lane soccer season began with a team excursion to the Goodman Theater for the award-winning stage drama about girls’ soccer, “The Wolves.” The Chicago Tribune called the show “an honest and sympathetic study of what it feels like to be an adolescent girl. Living and moving in a pack.” Wounded but no less fierce, my daughter supported her pack. And they supported her, keeping her close in their midst while she was "weak."
On the other end of the season, which culminated in a fourth consecutive city championship for Lane’s Varsity, soccer superstar Abby Wambach urged the women of Barnard’s 2018 graduating class to be the wolves. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “We will not ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ our way through life. We will unite our pack, storm the valley together, and change the whole bloody system.”
Instead of goalkeeper, my girl became pep squad, videographer, and on-the-bench counselor this year … she was a total wolf! Here are a few of my photos from the season.
