I’ve started playing in a co-ed indoor soccer league, which is hilarious. It’s no secret I love soccer, but it might kind of be a secret that, aside from a couple Coopers fan-friendlies, I haven’t played organized soccer since I was like five years old. I wasn’t the most aggressive or assertive kid, and soccer players tend to be one or both of those. I didn’t like getting kicked or knocked over, so my coach put me in goal, which was also bad because I didn’t particularly enjoy getting pegged with soccer balls, either.

I also remember my coach had put us four and five year olds into positions, those being fullback, halfback, and forward. That’s hilarious because even at that point no one on Earth had played using those kinds of positions for like 50 years. I’m guessing my coach found a very, very old book in the local library and that’s where he got that idea from. Also, good luck getting four and five year olds to exercise positional discipline.

Anyway, this co-ed league is a lot of fun, but as a guy who’s nearing 40, it’s also taking its toll. I’m actually in pretty good shape considering I spend most of my day at a desk. However, the mornings after our Sunday night games have been challenging. I’m sore in places I didn’t know I had muscles. I hate taking medicine of any kind but Advil has become my friend of late. A lot of my teammates have gotten some pretty nasty looking rug burns that I’ve managed to avoid so far, but I’m sure I’ll be complaining about one of those, too, soon enough. But it’s a lot of fun, even if we’re getting our asses kicked every week. I highly recommend it.