Soccer Moms Ch. 01

SOCCER MOMS - Part 1 (Remastered)

Author's Note: First, I want to thank everyone who went through the Soccer Trilogy with me. It was my first attempt to submit stories after reading them for many years. I was not sure how my story would be received and you made it a successful run. I learned a lot over the process of almost two years from my first evening at the keyboard until the trilogy finally ended. If you are reading this for the first time, I certainly encourage you to read all the stories. I think they're pretty good. And while I am biased in that opinion, the numbers bear me out.

Second, my biggest early failing was poor editing. I apologize to everyone who had to plod through it and if you are about to embark on reading the trilogy, I beg your indulgence and ask you to work through it. I got better.

Author's Original Notes: 1) there are underage characters in this story but they will neither have, see nor even hear any sexual activity; 2) this is a work of fiction and so certain aspects of this story involving youth soccer programs, college soccer programs and college soccer recruitment are not meant to be factually accurate, but are there because they help advance the storyline. If this bothers you, it would be best not to read this. However, to me, it would be like not reading Harry Potter books because magic doesn't really exist; and 3) this part is longer than most because I must get some storylines started. Please don't bail on this just because the first installment is long.

"Ugh!" Carol Rogers let out a sigh of both exasperation and worry. She was about to take her youngest daughter to soccer tryouts for the Blue Lightning, an elite soccer program that had become woven into her family's life. It wasn't so much the tryouts that bothered Carol, it was the cuts.

Carol O'Rourke Rogers was a 5' 7" redhead with emerald eyes to match her ancestry from the Emerald Isle. She was not petite but she was in very good shape for a woman of 48 years. She had been an athlete herself and had played soccer at a small Liberal Arts College with a small Division III sports program. It had been there that she met Paul Rogers. They fell in love and married right out of college. They had quickly started a family and now had three daughters.

Paul worked as a salesman for a large manufacturing company which afforded the couple a decent income. Carol had studied to be a CPA and she did freelance accounting work from home. This allowed her to be there for the children and still make some money to make things easier for the couple.

Carol was an attractive woman, not drop dead gorgeous but much better looking than she ever gave herself credit for. Along with the red hair and green eyes, she had the porcelain skin of her forebears. She was also a bit chesty at a 38D. She had always been very smart and very athletic and very competitive, and she never seemed to have a boyfriend. She thought it was because she wasn't pretty enough, but she never realized that she intimidated a lot of would-be suitors. She was at the top of her high school class in academics and would have started for the Varsity Boys Soccer Team if that had been allowed in her day.

When Paul came along in her Senior year of college, he loved her with all his heart and she fell in love right back. He would later admit to her that he had been just as intimidated as all the other guys, but he was just so drawn to her that with no real hope she would say yes, he had asked her out. Well, she did say yes and the rest was history.

Carol's love of sports had been passed on to her children, and all three had played soccer as youngsters. Her oldest, Abigail, had loved to play, and their local soccer team had given her plenty of fun while also providing all the advantages of competitive team sports which Carol and her husband Paul felt helped build character. That all changed the day Steve Pennington came to town.

Steve Pennington had played some professional soccer. He had been primarily a back-up goalkeeper for a number of the teams in the US Men's Soccer League and at six foot six inches tall and 220 pounds he was an imposing figure. His professional experience and his imposing size made him a force in the Blue Lightning program the day he arrived. He also had a daughter Abigail's age, at that time, twelve. Steve was determined to get his daughter into a Division I school and beyond. However, he was also intent on creating a whole program that would become a breeding ground for star soccer players, with his daughter Susan being the first.

When this first started, Carol was very enthusiastic. Pennington's own skills and his connections allowed him to quickly establish a very fine program and Abigail flourished with the more advanced training. However, the success of the Blue Lightning Program did not go unnoticed (in part due to promotion by Pennington himself) and each year more girls came from farther and farther away to try out for the team. And each year, the girls had to try out for their spot on the team. You didn't get to stay just because you were there the previous year. It eventually caught up to Abigail in the summer before her junior year of high school.

Despite all of her own improvement as a soccer player, the competition had become just too tough and Abigail was cut from the Blue Lightning. Initially, it had devastated Abigail and she did not touch a soccer ball for a week. It all worked out in the end. One of the rules of the "Blue Lightning Way" as Pennington called it was that the girls could not play for their high school teams. No longer a part of the Blue Lightning, Abigail was free to join her High School Team. She was starting Varsity Junior Year, was a Co-Captain Senior Year and went on to play for four years at that same Division III program where her mother had played.

The next child to go through this was her next oldest daughter, Brianna. Brianna was more like her mother. Abigail was wiry and quick. She was a little shorter and had a thinner frame. Her Blue Lightning training had taken her speed and added a nimbleness to her ball control skills that had made her an excellent scorer. Brianna was taller and a bit stockier in an athletic way. Brianna had made the thirteen-year-old team that same year Abigail had not been chosen. The Blue Lightning had already grown to have a team for 16-year-olds, like Abigail (and Susan Pennington) down to 13-year-olds.

The next year Brianna was not as fortunate. As a mother, Carol wanted her daughter to make it, but as a soccer player, she saw the handwriting on the wall. But apparently so did Brianna. The day Brianna was told she had been cut, Carol went into her room to console her, acutely aware of how painful it had been for Abigail the year before. So, Carol was a bit surprised when she went into Brianna's room to find her looking almost relieved and holding the form for a Lacrosse Summer Camp. This was Brianna's true calling. She played Junior Varsity as a Freshman and then three years of Varsity. She too went on to play her sport in college as well.

Now she was going to be driving her third daughter, Katie, for her try out for the 16-year-old team. But Carol had no real reason to worry. Katie was good, really good. She was the perfect combination of Abigail's quickness and finesse and Brianna's size. When she was eight, her Rec League asked Carol and Paul to let her play with the ten-year-olds. When she was twelve, Steven Pennington lobbied them to let her try out for the 13-year-old travelling team. Although a bit hesitant, the parents agreed and Katie made the team. She didn't start but she was already showing signs of being an exceptional talent, even against the tougher competition the travelling teams faced.

Katie would stay on the 13-year-old team the next year but that experience playing against older competition had improved her game even more. So, as Carol pulled into the parking lot and Katie jumped out of the car and ran over her friends and teammates from the 15-year-old team, Carol sighed and fretted over the tryouts. But as a soccer player herself, she knew she did not have to worry. Certainly, she had much less to worry about than that poor woman who had just come barreling into the parking lot just as the tryouts were beginning.

Jennifer Smith was running late, again. Coming late would always draw some stares, but as she got out of the car, the stares did not turn away. Her 5-foot 3-inch frame was petite. She had a flowing blond mane that came over her shoulders and was half-way down her back. She also had eyes so big and blue, most of the other parents there could tell her eye color even across the parking lot. She had on a dark business suit but had managed to get sneakers on her feet as she stepped out of the car. While most of her body was hidden by the suit it was noticeably clear that her breasts were very big. In actuality, they really weren't that big. Her bra size was 36C. But on her short frame they appeared much larger.

Around the back of the car came another, smaller version of the driver only dressed in shorts, tee shirt, shin guards and soccer cleats. Coach Tiffany Hochbauer, the coach for this age group, was calling the girls in and the new arrival streaked across the parking lot and onto the field to join the rest. One thing everyone noticed immediately, she was fast. Very fast.

Jen Smith watched her daughter fly to the field and for the first time that day she actually had a moment to relax. Today had been an incredibly stressful day for a woman who at thirty-eight had already had too much stress in her life. Married at twenty-three, a mother at twenty-four and a widow at thirty. Soccer had always been the center of her life growing up and she was very talented. She was gifted athletically, and she worked hard to make the most of that gift. Her size had been both a curse and a blessing for her sports career. A curse because people underestimated her because of her size; a blessing because they never knew what hit them when she got on a field. So much so that she even played soccer at a smaller Division I school. It did not lead to fame and fortune, but it did get her a good education without any student loans.

The soccer field had also become a refuge for her daughter, Melanie. Like her mother, she was often overlooked at first because of her size. But she was like Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, on a soccer field. And along with that speed was a natural gift of great agility and a hard-earned grace with the soccer ball at her feet, developed over hours and hours of hard work. In college, this combination had earned her mother the nickname Mighty Mouse. Whenever they saw her on a soccer field, Melanie's Grandparents called her MM2.

Jen's husband, Melanie's Father, John Smith had been killed when a truck with brakes that were worn well past a safe level could not stop at an intersection and t-boned his car, killing him instantly. The soccer field was a place where Melanie could escape her loss for a little while. She could spend time practicing and focusing on her skills work and not think about the father she never really got to know.

Jen had been working retail and caring for her daughter when John was killed. Her parents came to live with their daughter and granddaughter after the crash and were able to help Jen out so she did not have to work at the store. She threw herself into helping the law firm that was taking the personal injury case. Based on her work, the firm suggested she should go to school and get a Paralegal Certificate, which she did.

Jen had become very good friends with Amy Savage, the woman who ran the program at the local community college. She had been impressed with Jen's drive and attention to detail which is so vital in that work. Several years later when Amy went to work at another college where she was to create a new Paralegal Studies Department, she knew exactly who she wanted to oversee the program. It was halfway across the Country from her family and John's family, but Jen felt she had to establish something for her and Melanie on her own, without anyone's help. She had to prove to the world, her parents and herself, that she could do it. And so, here she was, a place where she knew no one and had no immediate support and now her daughter was late for her first day of soccer tryouts, which Jen knew would not look good.

Coach Hochbauer began speaking to the girls. Another element of "the Blue Lightning Way" was that the Coach stayed with his or her team as they aged. Coach Hochbauer had coached some of these girls since they were 13. While not everyone would approve of this arrangement, Steve Pennington felt the coach would know the players' strengths and could play to them. Coach Hochbauer had proven to be an expert in quickly learning the skills of the new girls and finding a way to incorporate them into those already on the team. By this time, this group of girls had become the most successful group in the brief history of the Blue Lightning Program. But what set this group apart was Maureen "Mo" Williams.

As proud as parents can be about their own children, not one of the parents with this team doubted that Mo Williams was the team's best player. She had come into the program two years ago, her parents driving over an hour to practice, which meant an hour back twice a week. But the renown of the Blue Lightning club was such that her parents never doubted it was worth it. And Steve Pennington was rather pleased with himself when he was first able to have Maureen don the Blue Lightning uniform, knowing it was going to be a feather in his cap someday. So, Maureen, Katie, Melanie and twenty other girls began their tryouts for the eighteen coveted spots. And the parents stood and watched the practice and started to do the math to see whether or not their child would have to go through what Abigail Rogers did six years before.

After the first forty minutes, Coach Hochbauer called for a water break. At that moment, both Jennifer and Melanie Smith realized that in their haste to have cleats and shin guards and get to the practice on time, they had not brought any water. So as the girls went to their sports bags and got their water bottles, and began idly chatting about everything other than soccer, Melanie stayed off to the side a bit. She was tough and she would tough her way through this and she dared anyone to say anything about it. Jen stayed off to the side around the parents' huddle as well, hoping no one noticed that she had forgotten her daughter's water bottle.

None of the parents noticed, but Katie Rogers did. Except for forty minutes of running in drills, the two had never met. So, Katie went over, introduced herself and offered Melanie some water from her bottle. After the demanding work out, it was greatly appreciated. Almost immediately, they were chatting like life-long friends. They were so engrossed in their conversation; they did not realize that Coach Hochbauer was restarting the practice and the other girls were already on the field. "Hey! Go-Go, New Girl! Let's go!" This startled them both and they quickly went and joined the rest of the team for the next drill.

Jen had been watching the other parents while her daughter chatted with this sweet young girl who had been helpful not only in giving Melanie water but reaching out to her when Melanie was on the outside, looking in. She was pretty sure that the redhead was probably that girl's mother. Jen went over and introduced herself to Carol and asked, "my daughter is Melanie and was it your daughter who shared her water bottle with mine?"

"Yes, nice to meet you Jen, I'm Carol Rogers and that was my daughter, Katie."

"If you don't mind me asking, Carol, and if you know, who was the Coach calling Go-Go. I know my daughter is fast but I would be surprised if she has a nickname already."

At that, Carol looked a little sheepishly at Jen and said "No. Go-Go is my daughter's nickname."

"I am guessing there is a story there" Jen responded implicitly asking Carol to tell the story.

"Well, Katie is the youngest of three girls and they all played soccer. So even at an early age, we were dragging her to her sisters' games. Sometimes she would sit on the sidelines with us and I guess we never realized it, but when one of the girls would get the ball, we would yell "Go! Go!" to whomever had the ball and encourage her to dribble it.

Then one day we're in a sports store and they had a floor to ceiling display of soccer balls. And Katie, who was three at the time, points to all the balls and says "Go! Go!" Well, it was the most adorable thing you ever saw."

Jen chuckled "Oh my gosh, I can see it. That is adorable."

Carol's sheepishness returned. "I know. So, at the next practice I am holding court telling all the other parents about it. From that moment on, Go-Go is how all the parents referred to her. And we have had at least one child in this program for the entire thirteen years since that happened. At first, she was too young to notice. Then she hated it for a while. But now it has grown on her and while she won't let anyone use it outside of soccer, here if they call "Katie" she won't even look up."

Sharing the story helped ease a conversation through the second water break. Only this time "Go-Go" and the "New Girl" had a quick drink and went right back onto the field kicking the ball back and forth to each other. By this time Jen knew that Carol had three daughters, a husband and that Carol had already managed to live through two of her daughters being cut from the team.

Carol knew that Jen had recently moved from out of the area and had a bit of a drive to get to the field. She was a widow, and that soccer was a great outlet for Melanie (and Jen) after the passing of Melanie's Father. So as the end of the first day of tryouts, Jen had realized that Carol was an old hand at this and felt she could confide some of her concerns for Melanie and tryouts. "Melanie really is a talented player, but it is not always noticed right away. And I just want her to be able to play. But there are so many other talented players here."

Carol understood Jen's emotions and had a bit of hope to offer. "Wait until after the talk before you start worrying about that."

"What's the talk" Jen asked.

"Tomorrow during the tryout, our Club President, Steve Pennington will call all the parents to hear his soaring oratory about how great our program is and how successful and how they have to be willing to follow all of his rules on how the club should run."

"Melanie's coach back where we used to live seemed to know of him. That was who told me about the club even before we got out here."

"Well, we were here before Steve got here and all this grew up around us. We have never had a problem with it, but it is not everyone's cup of tea. And while I have mixed feeling about Steve, his program has helped all three of my girls to some degree. You'll have to listen for yourself and see what you think. But if you do stay, not all of them will. Let's see how many are left by Wednesday.

The next day, right as the first water break was ending and Melanie was drinking from her own water bottle, a car entered the parking lot. So perfectly timed, it was almost as if he had been watching from close by and waited for the first water break to start before driving in. Out of the car stepped all six foot six of Steve Pennington. He strode over to the knot of parents and called for their attention.

"Thank you, parents for bringing your daughters out and your consideration for our club. I am Steve Pennington and I am the President of the Blue Lightning Club. I played professional soccer for a number of years and when my playing days were over, I started this program." It was statements like this that always caused Carol to cringe. The Blue Lightning had been around for years before Steve Pennington arrived. Abigail was eight years old when she first joined. However, she also knew that things took a major leap forward when Steve arrived. So, she said nothing.