Playing soccer. One day in the fall of 2011 I decided to do it. No more assuming it was too late in life to start. No more assuming I could never be good enough to get on the field. No more assuming I could never be in shape to stay on the field. No more excuses for not pursuing a game I had really come to appreciate and love over the years. So, off I went…only to be unable to find a team.
My soccer epiphany came after kicking the ball around one day with my brother-in-law, Eric, who had been playing for years. Physically, I was able to keep up with him. My skills on the ball weren’t great, but the idea of playing goalkeeper intrigued me. For one thing, I could use my hands! In recreational league, players must stay on their feet — no slide tackles — but goalkeepers can go to the ground to snuff out attacks on the goal. As long as the player doesn’t mind putting their face close to an onrushing attacker’s shoe, it’s no big deal. So, a little craziness helps, too. Check!
Another reason for playing goalkeeper was that it’s not a position everyone clamors to play. I figured it would make finding a team easier, especially since I was just starting out and my skills weren’t beyond the beginner level. Goalkeeping appeared to offer a little more margin for error.
Unfortunately, finding a team proved to be elusive. There weren’t a lot of leagues close to my home, and the weather was turning. The best option was to join an indoor league. There are facilities all over the Portland metro area that cater to year-round indoor soccer. I had a couple of leads on joining a team, but those went nowhere.
In the meantime, I purchased my first pair of soccer boots and spent time at the local middle school dribbling the ball up and down and across the football field. I worked on corner kicks and got to where I could launch the ball over the field goal posts. I could also get the attention of those in the near vicinity when loudly clanging the ball off the metal crossbar. Clarke Hylton, soccer star in the making. Still, I was a player without a team!
Our group came together through a casual conversation at work when I mentioned my fruitless pursuit thus far. Mallory, one of my co-workers, came to the rescue. She practically threw a team together within a couple days, made up of several of our colleagues and a couple of her own friends. There were a few moments when it looked like things might not come together, but she got us into a Saturday night lower division coed league at an indoor facility close to work.
I handled the administrative tasks, and just like that we were off and running…with a bunch of people who hadn’t played in years, if at all. We didn’t have a lot of time to think about that though because our league started its busy winter season almost immediately. So, we focused on the next most important part — our team name, of course.
The paperwork required by the Oregon Soccer Center, the facility where we’d be spending our Saturday nights for the next couple of months, had to be turned in as soon as possible. That led to the quickly conceived and utterly forgettable Goal Trolls nickname on our original registration form.
A moment of inspiration came courtesy of Miguel, one of our colleagues who had no intention of playing with us but was interested in our fledgling team. We worked at a group of radio stations, one of which was a Christian music station and the other, a Latino station. One morning Miguel announced that we should be the Fish Tacos — a play on the radio station names and formats. Brilliant. We had blue and also white station tee shirts, depending on whether we played as the home or away team on a given night, which solved our uniform problem as well.
Everything was coming together. I just needed to purchase a little more equipment and check out the facility where we’d be playing so I could drop off our fee deposit. For that, I took my buddy and fellow teammate, Garrett. That’s when we had a few “Oh, @#*$!” moments.
A few pictures from the kick around that started this whole thing:
More to come in Part II…