Reprinted from:	Frederick News Post
	Date:	Mar 27, 2007
	Soccer was more than a Sport
	Leeza Constantoulakis
	I started playing soccer when I was 4 years old. My parents were also my coaches and I played for a local recreational club. I’m sure my parents only had me play so that I was active and as a way to release some of that bottled up toddler energy. I stuck with soccer. From Carroll Manor to Ballenger Creek Recreation soccer. Then I went from rec league to a small club in Frederick called Frederick Soccer Club. From there I went to a bigger, all-boys club, Excel, and by age 13 I was playing on the premier girls club team in Frederick , Frederick United. I wasn’t going to be the next Mia Hamm or Brandi Chastain, but I played soccer for a different reason. I truly loved it. People believe sports can keep kids out of trouble, or keep kids active. For me it did that and so much more. When I became stressed out with school, I could go to practice and forget that world and enter a new one. Your teammates are a second family, and your coach serves as the head of the household. Most of the girls on my club team did not go to my high school so drama was never an issue. We were like 18 perfect sisters. Once I joined Frederick United, soccer consumed most of my life. We would practice about three days a week, not to mention games on weekends. It was such a crazy, hectic schedule but looking back on it now, I’d take it back in a heartbeat. Practices were about two hours long at various locations around Frederick . When it came to games, they could take up a whole Sunday. We played teams in Virginia and when you have to be there an hour before the game, travel two hours both ways, and then play a 90-minute game, you're looking at an all-day event. By Under-16 I was eating, breathing and sleeping soccer. Tournaments took us to places as far away as Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Long weekends were common where all you did was live soccer. We’d get up in the morning, eat breakfast as a team, play a game, have lunch as a team, possibly play another game, team dinner, then relax and just be girls, sometimes even play a little soccer. These tournaments hold some of the greatest memories with my team and soccer days. The girls and I had our days where we dreaded practices, or didn’t want to get up for runs. At times we told ourselves we were burnt out and not sure if we could do it anymore. We lost a few teammates because of that, but something in the rest of us kept us going. By Under-18, my team, for the most part, had been together for four full years. We knew each other inside and out. Who liked to play where, what type of player they were, her goals in life, her likes, her dislikes, but most importantly, we were truly a team. We learned to play the game of soccer with such talent it was more then fun. Our coach, Mark Wolcott, said he could sit back at games and watch us figure out this beautiful game, and when we solved it, nothing could stop us. I could go on for days about how thankful I am for everything about club soccer. The ridiculous hot days, freezing cold game days, the sweat, the pain, the heart, the enjoyment, the passion, the happiness it put into my life. But, like most every story, there had to be an ending. My team was made up of half juniors and half seniors, and last year those seniors went off to college. We were not able to pull together another team, and that is where my story ends. I did not choose to go an hour-plus down the road to another club. I planned to play high school soccer in the fall of my senior year and work the rest of my senior year. When my team was first labeled as “folded” it hit hard. It meant that no more would soccer engulf my life, and that I was losing my second family. I didn’t think it was possible, but it hit even harder after high school soccer ended. I was extremely busy with school and work, but soccer was missing. It is spring now, and normally I would be hitting the fields with my girls and preparing to take on Division 1 WAGS, but I’m not. With club soccer in my life, everything seemed to fall into place. I managed school, sleep and friends wonderfully. Now I feel like my life is hectic. I miss club soccer more than I ever thought possible. I decided I would play tennis for the high school this year in hopes it could fill the hole in my life. I am enjoying tennis very much and have made some wonderful new friends. Nothing compares to club soccer for me, but tennis has certainly helped me to focus on something else. Giving up club soccer has become a very difficult process for me, but I tell myself it was bound to happen because I didn’t plan on playing soccer in college. Sometimes we don’t realize how great things are until we lose it.