The Spirit Crew (Part 3 of 3)

In Part 1 and 2, you found out why I volunteered with the Washington Spirit and what it was like to be a volunteer.  But as I soon realized, it’s more than just a volunteer gig.  The Spirit Family is real and the Spirit Crew is awesome.

People always say making friends as an adult when you’re no longer in high school or college is difficult.  You’re no longer forced to be at a certain place for a certain time with certain people.  Arguably, the same can be said for people in the workplace, but people treat work as work and all go home to their own lives.  It’s no different for the Spirit Crew.  We all have jobs and we treat our work as work.  It just so happens that when we go home from work, our lives revolve around soccer in all of its glorious forms.

When #SpiritFamily started popping up on Twitter, I’m sure some people thought it was corny.  But I found it to be incredibly appropriate.  From the time some of us met each other at the Volunteer Orientation or when we worked our first game, we started being more than just random people we met while volunteering.  After starting the season with an away game, the Spirit had a home stand of 4 straight games.  So for 4 straight weekends, we spent hours at the SoccerPlex together helping make sure that the league had everything they needed, that the teams on the field had everything they needed, that the referees had everything they needed, and that the fans had the best experience we could provide them.   We bonded a lot during the season.  To the point that after the games, we stuck around helping tear things downs and moving things to where they belonged, not because we were necessarily assigned to do those things, but because we wanted to help.

Usually a group of us would go out afterwards to talk, laugh, and share stories of things that happened during the games that would make tears stream down our faces in laughter.  Or regale each other with dramatic stories of life and death, like the time I was helping the ushers in the stands after a game when Ashlyn Harris threw one of her gloves into the stands.  I watched as the glove fly gracefully through the air in slow motion and landed next to me with a gentle plop, not befitting what was about to transpire.  Time moved in slow motion, like in those war movies when you see a grenade being thrown at the good guys… however, this time instead of diving on the thing like a hero, I jumped away as the crowd rushed the area to try to retrieve this game worn souvenir.  I’m glad I lived to tell the story.  Hours would go by over the three of the most important things in life: fun, food, and friends.

It wasn’t just game day shenanigans that bonded the group that would eventually name itself the Spirit Crew.  We travelled to National Team games, followed the Spirit to other NWSL venues, and a group of us were at the NWSL Championship game between the Western New York Flash and the Portland Thorns.  (And all the road trip hijinks that such adventures entail.) We tailgated together at games.  We’ve run 5Ks and obstacle course races together.  We’ve laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery together.  We’ve celebrated birthdays and housewarmings together.  The best way to describe all of that is: Spirit Family.  It is more than just a catchy hashtag.

Even early on in the season, the concept of the Spirit having a string of away games boggled out minds.  No Spirit game days?  What would we do?  We couldn’t fathom life without the Spirit Family.  Even now in the off-season, we still keep in touch despite our varying lives and obligations keeping us away.  But every time we get back together, it’s like we were never apart.  And with the new season coming up and a new generation of volunteers coming in, the Spirit Crew anxiously awaits for the new members to the Spirit Family.

The Volunteer Experience (Part 2 of 3)

In Part 1, I rambled on about why I became a Washington Spirit volunteer.  I’m glad you’ve all decided to come back for more because this, like my experience, will just keep getting better. 

The volunteering process wasn’t long or difficult.  After I filled out the form on the Spirit website to be a volunteer, I was contacted shortly afterwards by Nadine, the Volunteer Coordinator.  I did a brief phone interview and I was invited to Volunteer Orientation at the Maryland SoccerPlex.  And so began the adventure…

The thing about volunteering for something is that most people do it because they’re passionate about whatever cause or organization they’re signing up with.  Volunteering for a new women’s soccer team in a new league is no different.  I didn’t know what to expect when I walked through those SoccerPlex doors.  Granted, it didn’t help that I showed up humorously early because I didn’t want to risk being late.  DC area traffic is always a cause for concern, even early on a Saturday morning… or so my brain told me.  I was mildly concerned that I’d be the oldest one there, surrounded by screaming young fans hoping to catch a glimpse of a player.  But the volunteers there were professional and just as diverse as the fan base.  The people that showed up were just as passionate about women’s soccer in DC as I was, if not more so.  There were people wearing old Washington Freedom gear and there were people there that barely remember the WUSA.  But regardless of any of our differences, it was clear that we were all there to help support the team.  And after a trivia-based ice breaker where our group in the front row won Starbucks gift cards, it was also readily apparent that we were all fans of the game as well.

The very first game I worked, I was assigned to be a ticket scanner on a very, very cold day.  It was the pre-season and we were standing at the gates, holding the scanners with our numb hands greeting fans from everywhere with a smile and a shiver.  Despite how cold it was, seeing the scoreboard display SPIRIT with the fans in the stands on a gorgeous field at the SoccerPlex made it all worth it. 

The next game, I got a different assignment and was partnered up with Ian, another volunteer.  We were assigned to be the team statisticians.  This time, instead of being outside, we got to sit in the press box and watch the game from there, pen and paper in hand documenting shots, corner kicks, assists, goals, and substitutions (even NCAA-rules substitutions for a game).  Thankfully, once the season began, we used a league-provided stat tracking program and a laptop, which made it much easier.  And it would be there that I would spend the rest of the season, sitting next to our public address announcer Ken, Ian, and the media.

I knew I would be going to games all season, but I never would have anticipated being in the press box watching the games.  The stats that we logged went directly to the league and as the season went on, were live-tweeted.  It was and is still is one of the coolest gigs I’ve ever landed.  After games, I went down to the stands and to the hill to help the ushers and it was then that I was named the, “Angry Spirit Volunteer” by some of the fans.  I do have to put forth this disclaimer:  I was never angry.  I just wanted to make sure all of our fans were safe and if I told you to stop leaning/standing on the railing, stop pushing into the rope line, or gave you the infamous, “You’re already in the front, you can’t get any MORE front,” line, it was out of concern and love.

As a volunteer that was mostly in the press box, I never really interacted with the players much beyond the team sponsored meet and greets and short random snips of conversation.  But I did escort one player’s mother around before a game because another player’s mother jokingly told her that I was the “mean one” (Backstory: I didn’t recognize who she was and didn’t let her in the one game I was a ticket scanner because she didn’t have a ticket.)  It was moments like these and being there for the team’s first home goal, home shutout, and home win (after enduring a ridiculous rain/lightning delay) that really added the cherry on top to an already incredible experience.  From the moment we put on the bright yellow volunteer shirt (later, the red Spirit polo) and made the drive to the SoccerPlex, putting our credentials around our necks, signing in and getting issued our radios and meal tickets to the end of the game, tearing down curtains, and moving benches, we were all there as the team went through highs and lows.  And even though we weren’t on the field wearing the Washington Spirit uniform, we went through it together as a Spirit Family and I’m excited to do it all over again in 2014. 

As I look back on an old tweeted picture of that first orientation meeting and the people in that front row that won those gift cards… I see that those random strangers that I first met a year ago have become a part of the Spirit Family, the Spirit Crew, and most importantly, my friends.  

To be continued, in Part 3.

Why I Volunteer (Part 1 of 3)

It was last year around this time that the fledgling National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was starting to take shape.  As a fan of women’s soccer and watching the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) both form and fail, I knew I wanted to be a part helping this new league succeed and make it past that dreaded third year.  This is the first in a series of articles from the perspective of a member of the Washington Spirit Crew. 

First, a little background about me: I am a native Chicagoan and I grew up watching players like Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers dominate the women’s soccer scene.  I remember watching the 1999 Women’s World Cup final and thinking to myself, “Holy cow… I wish I could be there,” but alas, I lived in Chicago and my parents didn’t want to fly us to California to watch a soccer game.  When the WUSA formed, I was disappointed that Chicago didn’t get a team so by the second season I had adopted the Washington Freedom as the team I wanted to root for.  Watching Mia Hamm and a young Abby Wambach play off of each other was pretty amazing, even if I couldn’t watch them in person.  The league’s folding in 2003, for lack of a better term, sucked.  Yes, we had the 2004 Summer Olympics and a few friendlies here and there… but it just wasn’t the same.

By the time the WPS started up, the Air Force had just moved me to Central Coast California and even though it was several hours away, I made sure I was there in the stands on March 29^th, 2009 at the Home Depot Center for the first game between the Los Angeles Sol and the Washington Freedom.  I supported the WPS the best I could.  I made the drives to a couple of Sol games and I also made the trek up to the Bay Area to see the Freedom play FC Gold Pride.  It was great.  Then the Sol folded and following year, FC Gold Pride followed suit.  As a fan, I could see the writing on the wall… and that same feeling of “suck” that I felt when the WUSA folded was slowing coming back. 

I left the Air Force in 2011 and took a job working for the federal government in Washington DC.  I was pretty excited.  Even though Chicago had a team in the WPS, I still felt a loyalty to the Washington Freedom because I had been rooting for them for almost a decade.  Finally, I’ll be able to go see the Freedom play in person all season… that was until the team moved to Florida and renamed itself the MagicJack.  While that didn’t “suck” as much as seeing teams and the league folding, I was definitely displeased.  The “suck” didn’t start again until the WPS folded officially.

For me, I felt like I had angered the soccer gods.  Every team I lived near either folds or moves or both.  When the NWSL was announced and I found out that there will be a team in Washington DC, I was going to do everything in my power to support the team and appease whatever karmatic deficit I have between me and women’s professional soccer teams.  I pre-ordered season tickets, told my friends about the team, and made plans to take them with me to games.  For months, I don’t think I talked about anything else other than the NWSL, the Washington Spirit, player allocations, and, “Dang it, soccer gods, don’t do this to me again.” 

When I saw the opportunity to volunteer with the team, I immediately jumped at the chance.  I didn’t care what I was assigned.  If I was assigned to scrub the locker room toilet with an official Washington Spirit NWSL toilet brush, I’d do it with pride.  (Thankfully that’s not actually a volunteer job.)  But I wanted to be a part of the family that helps make the NWSL and teams like the Washington Spirit exist and be sustainable.  Yes, it’s cool to be able to go to the games for free.  Yes, it’s cool to have opportunities to go to player meet and greets.  Yes, it’s cool to get some of the cool swag that comes with being a volunteer.  Yes, it’s cool to interact with the fans of all ages.  But being a volunteer is more than that for me.  It’s about helping the league and the team grow and me supporting that process to the best of my abilities.  And ultimately:  Dang it, soccer gods, don’t do it to me again.

Part 2 will dive into the volunteer experience.