Soccer fan appreciates recognition

To the editor:
In response to Ray Cooney’s latest edition of Rays of Insight, I am happy to finally see some recognition from a public standpoint of my beloved sport, soccer.
Growing up as a kid, soccer was not the most popular sport to fall in love with.
Most schools had no existing soccer program so any early years wasted on traveling teams or little leagues would grow to no avail at the end of one’s athletic high school career. Even simply being a girl, one was at a disadvantage because of the inaccessibility of leagues or programs to play for in the area.
I was too enamored with the sport that I was not going to let that stop me. I ended up playing for boy traveling teams and going to “open pitches” with the boys’ high school teams, trying all that I could to develop my own game and to entice others to love the sport as much as I did.
I would simply get the reply that “soccer is not a sport” and that “soccer players are not real athletes,” so I spent most of my high school and college years trying to prove to anyone and everyone that soccer is indeed a sport and one that takes incredible athleticism and stamina to play well and to excel in.
With the World Cup coming into prominence throughout the years, all my labors of finally proving the game of soccer is certainly a sport have come to attainment. Soccer is not on the same level of the NFL or MLB in terms of popularity or fame and it will take decades if not centuries before it overcomes the status of the NBA or even NASCAR, but at least it is on the horizon.
And someday, soon I hope, many more will know and relish the accomplishment a soccer player makes when they complete a hat trick, score the game winning goal off of a set piece or lift high the golden trophy of the FIFA World Cup.
Brianne Wuebker
St. Henry, Ohio