Samantha “Sammi” Rose Evans, Seventeen, Defense, #25

 

My first memory is passing a tiny soccer ball with my dad and brother at a neighborhood barbecue. My brother, Jared, is a lot older than me so I think he must’ve been in high school at the time. I remember my dad and brother laughing a lot whenever the ball went through my legs. We grew up in Harrisonburg as a family. My mom, Alice, stays at home and my dad, Frank, is in insurance. My brother studied Philosophy at William and Mary and now he’s off in West Virginia living in some big group house and growing his own vegetables. We live in a pretty nice house near the high school, and we have a pool in the backyard. I’ve never really had to worry about money.

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When I was little, I was super close to my dad. He taught me how to mow the lawn and pump gas. We used to wake up at 5:30 on school days and drive over to the high school soccer field where we’d do drills together before the sun was even up. Sometimes, he’d take me to get Dunkin’ Donuts afterwards before he dropped me off at school. He would get a coffee and I’d get chocolate sprinkles. I vaguely remember his temper tantrums, but mostly they happened after I’d gone to bed.

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My dad isn’t really nice to my mom. I remember one time they just didn’t talk I guess and both showed up to the house having gotten groceries separately. He yelled at her for ten minutes in the driveway. Neighbors kept poking their heads out to watch. Finally, my mom broke down crying, threw the groceries in the car, and drove off. My dad got a beer and fell asleep in front of the TV. My mom came home the next day. It was a lot harder to like my dad after that. I was ten.

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My dad was our coach for a few seasons when I was 14/15. Last game of the season, Alex got a red card for calling the other goalie a “fucking bitch” and my dad punched the ref in the jaw. The team parents decided to get a new coach after that. Once he stopped being my coach, my dad stopped working with me outside practice. He came to games, and of course he still cares, but I get up at 5:30 and do my workouts with my dog, Benny, instead. I also kind of grew apart from the girls on the team then, too.  I’m still friends with the girls I go to school with, but it’s different.

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I went to soccer camps every Summer in West Virginia, though, and those were where I really found my people. I’m close-ish with the girls on my team, but it’s way different when you have to balance school and work than when you can spend all day with the team and you all live in a cabin together. At school, it’s like no one takes anything seriously. No one cares about anything, they act like it’s cool not to care about what you do in life. There isn’t any passion. They’re all just on their phones. They play because they want to look fit or they want money for college. I play because it makes me a better person. You play on a team, and it’s like a family. This team is definitely family, except the new girl, but we aren’t always friends.

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    Outside soccer, I really love cooking. If my brother visits, we’ll put on The Office and cook the best mac n’ cheese. My family keeps my diet really strict (my mom found some soccer-kid diet in a magazine), so when I cook I put in all the cheese and bacon and have cookies for dessert. He has that Tasty app where you just watch little videos and make the worst-for-you-food but everything we’ve made has been awesome.

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    I’m really hoping to go to UC Santa Barbara after I graduate. I know it’s really hard to get into, but it would be all the way across the country from my dad and it’s right on the water. I definitely want to keep playing through college and hopefully afterwards too. I’m taking art this year, though, and that’s been pretty fun. I might also try to do that in college.