My soccer hero

My soccer hero is Cheryl Hagen of Chilliwack BC.

(This little essay was read on CBC Radio as part of the BC Soccer hero contest and won us tix to the Spain-Brazil FIFA U20 game!)

This spring, after years of standing on the sidelines as soccer mom and
occasional kids’ coach, Cheryl decided that mums deserved to have fun
too. She hatched the idea of forming a team to play in the local
seven-a-side ladies league.

One night over wine she convinced myself and another friend to play, and then the campaign began. By week’s end she had 12 players recruited, ranging in age from 32 to 49.
The fact that nine of the mums had never played before didn’t faze her. She convinced our friend’s 14-year-old son to coach and we were off, practising diligently, showing up punctually for every game, and usually losing by a double digit margin.

We whooped when we occasionally scored, were jovial and motherly towards our much younger opponents, and had a vodka cooler ritual after every game.

We improved by leaps and bounds, bonded terrifically, and had a great
time taking time out for ourselves.

After not playing for 21 years, I was delighted to be on the field
again, so the Rosedale Rockers send cheers to Cheryl.


Our team cheer summarizes it well:
We’re the mums perhaps you’ve seen us
We’ve got three dozen kids between us!
Tired of being the carpool mums
We are here to have some fun!
Go Rockers! Play soccer!