niece

Life is full of moments.

Let’s be real here for a moment — life has ups and downs. There’s a lot of negative out there and everybody goes through times when they wonder if life is ever a good thing.

But the moments …

I know many people will be obsessively happy. I try and consider myself — for the most part — a pretty upbeat and positive person who is more often than not pretty happy. But life isn’t easy.

The shot that ended up in the goal for Nicole.

It’s the moments that get you through it.

A few weeks ago, while working on a personal project, a friend spoke with me about making moments. Now, that talk was about professional wrestling, but it can easily be shifted over to life itself.

Moments is what get people through life.

When talking about moments, it can be anything — big or small. There are those times that people can never take away from you, no matter what.

This past weekend, my niece played in the NJCAA Division III national tournament for women’s soccer. The end result wasn’t what they wanted as they didn’t win the championship.

Obviously, there were some upset people with this result.

However, it’s the moments you’ll remember 20 years from now.

Life — like sports — is full of wins and losses. Despite society and youth sports making sure everybody should get a blue ribbon, it isn’t reality.

Not even close.

Everybody won’t win. Everybody doesn’t get a trophy. But everybody has a chance to make moments.

The women’s soccer team for SUNY Broome made moments this weekend by being at nationals. The team made a moment by winning a breathtaking 1-0 game in their opener to reach the semifinals. The team made another moment by finishing third in the country.

And my niece, Nicole, had a moment nobody can ever take away from her. In that opener, she scored the lone goal to give the team the 1-0 victory in the first game. I couldn’t have been more proud.

The second game, in the national semifinals, didn’t go as well with Broome falling to Brookdale, 3-0. Brookdale, by the way, made a moment on Sunday by winning its third straight national championship. If you are going to lose to a team, it might as well be to the national champs.

Battling for a ball during nationals.

Life is all about the moments.

In the third-place game, Broome dominated regional rival Herkimer (which entered the tournament as the No. 1 team in the nation and the top seed) to win, 3-0. Nicole had two assists in the game and earned all-tournament honors.

Moments.

Sure, there were some tears after losing in the semifinals. But what this team accomplished this weekend is something to be amazingly proud about. Nobody can take the moments away from them and what they did. Twenty years from now, the moments will remain vivid. The results are a fact of history. But the moments will be what you continually smile about and always remember.

Live for the moments.

Always.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Long before becoming a state champion, youth soccer was King.

This is a story that started long ago.

Maybe 2006? Earlier? Somewhere around there, anyway.

My niece, at that point, was a soccer nut. She played travel soccer for tots. She was all of about 8 or 9. So she probably started playing well before that, but this was my time in documenting many games with my camera.

State champ!

I haven’t been to every game my niece has played in. But I’ve been to my fair share. And, despite knowing quite a bit about the game, I’m not always the biggest fan. Whether it’s fans or whatever else, I don’t always enjoy myself. When I go, however, I try and get away from people. I watch, I’ll cheer and I support.

Two Sundays ago, my nice — a junior in high school — and her teammates won a state championship. It was the second straight year they played in the title game, losing in overtime last year.

Many of these girls have played together through all these years. From “pee-wee” style, to travel, to indoor, to junior high, to JV to varsity …

Yeah, it’s been quite a trip.

It’s quite amazing, actually, to look at some of these older photos. To see how these young ladies have grown and developed as players. They’ve always been quite talented, too.

One of the best parts about these girls is many of them went through the ranks together. To be sure, there are key people who joined up at different times, but a good handful of these girls started at a young age together.

That has to help.

Controlling the ball in 2006.

Not just for the sake of knowing one another, but have been friends for a long time and know what the others can do.

Last year, this one set of girls were sophomores. Though there were upperclassmen on the team, these girls made an impact.

How good were they?

Two of them shared player of the year honors from the local newspaper.

That good.

This year, they were strong as normal. They rallied in spots they needed to. They reached the state final and the opposing team scored early. Things didn’t seem so good.

But, despite how the game went, they battled. A goal early in the second half tied it and then the winner — an extremely odd and crazy goal — came with about a minute left.

When the final horn sounded, they exploded in celebration.

I went digging for the photos of my niece in this post. But while I was at it, I found some others of the girls she is still teammates with. It’s quite amazing to see what they were like back then — still battling, still playing and still competing. They learned young and the payoff was obviously worth the time.

Hopefully, they cherish this moment and relish in the accomplish they had. It’s something to truly be proud and thankful for. A hearty congrats and maybe they’ll be able to do it again next year.

Check out some of the photos below.