THESE MOMS GET THEIR OWN KICKS
Published on May 11, 1997
© 1997- The Press Democrat
BYLINE: Lowell
Cohn
Staff Writer
COLUMN: LOWELL COHN
This is a story about soccer moms at play.
You know what a soccer mom is. She's that devoted creature who
stands on the sideline cheering for her son or daughter. She is
chauffeur to her kids, comforter when her child gets a scraped knee,
and the bearer of the team snack.
Now, she is more than that. Welcome to the land of WOW, which
stands for Women of Windsor. WOW is a team of middle-aged women,
ages 33-50, who grew tired of standing on the side and decided it
was their turn to have fun. So they formed a soccer team which
competes in a brand-new local all-womens' league, the other teams
being the Red Hot Chili Kickers, the Wizard Women, the Cheetahs, and
the Rincon Valley Soccer Moms.
Fact: If you stand the 16 members of WOW on their heads, their
shirts read ``MOM.''
Fact: WOW's motto is ``No Whining.'' And don't you wish the San
Francisco Giants, Oakland A's, 49ers, Raiders and Warriors had the
same motto?
WOW got started six weeks ago when a woman from a Santa Rosa
team, in need of members, asked Windsor soccer mom Sandee Gibson for
recruits. Gibson said to herself, ``Well, I'll just organize my own
team.'' And that's exactly what she did. She started phoning moms
she had come to know through her kids' soccer teams, and the
response was overwhelming.
``I just told them, `You can make a fool of yourself with other
people like you,''' Gibson said.
That was an irresistible sales pitch. It also helped that Gibson
started talking about the year-end party from the get-go. Moms like
a party. At season's end, WOW will rent a fleet of limos and drive
to San Francisco for a banquet.
Everyone liked the idea of the party and the limos, but some
weren't exactly confident about the soccer part. Take the case of
goalie Julie Andolson. At 50, she wasn't sure she was up to the
rigors of soccer. To test herself, she ran across the Costco parking
lot. After she'd caught her breath and noticed she was still alive,
she grabbed her cell phone, called Gibson, and shouted, ``Sign me up
now before I lose my nerve.''
Like all goalies, Andolson is serious about soccer, and wears
specialized gloves when she plays. Except that hers are yellow
rubber dishwashing gloves. Andolson's yellow gloves have become the
symbol for WOW. ``They grip real well,'' says teammate Karen Bunch.
``I think it's kind of inventive.''
Even though the WOW moms thought they understood soccer, they
quickly learned the difference between watching and playing. They
compete on Sundays (only not today on Mother's Day) at Sports
City on Piner Road. It's an indoor facility with Astroturf,
and the first time they set foot on it, some of the women fell flat
on their faces even though no one was around them. Their feet stuck
on the turf. Down they went. And couldn't you just die of
embarrassment.
Or there was the matter of kicking the ball. ``I had watched
kids,'' Gibson said, ``but like how do I kick the ball?''
To which teammate Shelli Gordon added, ``You think something as
simple as kicking the ball is simple. It isn't.''
And then there were the crucial issues of soccer etiquette. Like
women have it and men don't. Before the first game, an official
sternly warned the WOW players, ``No spitting.''
No spitting?
``We just cracked up,'' said soccer mom Susan Wilhelmsen.
``It was like, `Oh, God, we can't spit,''' said Gordon, who'd
never once experienced a desire to let loose a gob of spit in her
entire life.
The WOW moms are also polite, which provides a new wrinkle on the
American sporting scene. ``The apologizing out there is hilarious,''
says Wilhelmsen. ``Everybody's constantly saying, `Excuse me. I hope
I didn't hurt you.'''
It is not uncommon to hear Wow moms say, ``Oh my God. I'm
sorry.'' (And can you imagine Reggie White creaming Steve Young,
then exclaiming, ``Oh my God, Steve. I'm sorry.'')
``It's a woman thing,'' says Gibson. ``I'd just as soon not do
it. I want to be tough like men.''
``I go home and feel bad if I hurt someone,'' says Bunch.
``Well, she's a nurse,'' Gibson says. ``She's supposed to be
helping people.''
The constant apologizing has led to humorous consequences. In the
last game, WOW mom Marcia Shaw and an opposing player knocked into
each other, and Shaw fell to the turf. Naturally, the other woman
stopped what she was doing, helped Shaw up, patted her on the back,
and said, ``You OK?''
Suddenly, they heard a loud whistle. The referee, obviously a
slave to the rule book, ran over yelling, ``You can't touch another
player.'' He awarded WOW a free kick, but the WOW moms felt guilty
because they knew the offending player had her heart in the right
place.
Another time an opposing mom was sent to the penalty box for
kicking the ball off the ceiling, a no-no in indoor soccer. She sat
in the penalty box, her shoulders hunched, serving her two-minute
sentence. ``I've been bad,'' she was heard to mutter.
Then there was the case of the goalie and her shirt. We'll let
Gibson tell this story. ``In our last game I took out the goalie on
our team. I ran her over. She was hurt, so she ran off the field to
change shirts with another player, because we only have one goalie
shirt.''
Gibson was grinning as she spoke. ``Our goalie ripped off her
shirt and so did the other player. They were down to their bras. It
was dead quiet in there. Then one of the husbands yelled, `God, I
love women's soccer.'''
Indeed.
To comment on Lowell Cohn's column, call 523-8080 and hit
category No.4225 or he can be reached by e-mail at lacohn@aol.com.
PHOTO: b&w no credit
Julie Andolson shows off her goalie's gloves, which actually are
yellow rubber dishwashing gloves.
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