RHIAN SOCCER JOURNALS           

A KARA REMINDER                            13th May 2011

Yet another birthday - this time, for my grandfather who turns 89 today. He has been a tough man to get a hold of lately as he has a new girl friend, Molly, who is 90 years old. The two of them make old age seem less formidable.

The squad had a quiet morning and then we a return to training in the afternoon. It was another stinking hot day, and the weather is so consistently warm and sunny that we are becoming complacent about it. We almost need some days of rain so that we appreciate the sun and get used to training in different field conditions.

Our practice sessions are hot ones at the moment so we are having to be very careful with hydration and our electrolytes: This should be good practice for Germany and the type of conditions we can expect this summer.

This afternoon I had the chance to speak to Kara Lang over Skype, and it was excellent to speak to her. Kara decided to retire right before Christmas, and it has been hard not having her here with us. She was a hugely important member of this team, so her retirement came as a shock. She left a big hole in the squad that has yet to be filled. She worked harder than anyone, on and off the field, and set a high standard for everybody on the team. However, we all know that Kara will be a success at anything she does, because she is so committed, focused, and driven. Hearing her laughing over the phone and hearing her stories gave me great hope for my future - life does go on after retirement from soccer. This being said, Kara also mentioned how much she misses being with the team and she reminds everyone how fortunate we are to have followed our dreams. It isn't easy being so far away from all our friends, family, old teammates and loved ones, so being reminded of how lucky we actually are, is a good thing to hear.