The Johnsons' Journal

I’d say ‘Our’ winter of soccer, but I’m pretty sure Courtney would put no ownership on my season(s) of soccer and is pretty glad that this season is coming to a close so she can have me home on Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons again.

For those of you who don’t know, I play soccer. I love playing soccer. I have for as long as I can remember. When I was young, I can remember wanting to play soccer when older brother Dan started playing. Then when I got my chance, I never stopped.

AYSO, club then in high school, I played nearly year round between club season, high school season and “tournament” season (basically any other time).

When I got to University, I kept playing recreational soccer with some good friends I met. We continued playing together all the way until Courtney and I left for our trip.

When we got to Australia and got settled in, one of the first things I did was ask around about soccer teams and leagues in the area. After talking to a couple people and emailing a couple clubs, I went out for a preseason training session with a team called Albert Park Soccer Club. They were a diverse bunch of guys, some Greek, some British, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Mauritius, even another American! Like I said, DIVERSE… We got on pretty well right away. After a few weeks of tryouts I made it onto the Reserve squad.

Most teams here have a Senior (or First) squad and a Reserve squad. They both play against the same club’s respective teams each week so it makes for a true “club” feeling. Seniors will cheer on the Reserves while they play, then likewise Reserves will cheer on the Seniors.

With working out of town and going on holiday back to the US last year I ended up playing most of the games I was around for with the Reserve squad playing striker. Towards the end of the season, I got pulled up to the Senior squad after there were some injuries and other players out of town.

Last year was a bit of a building year for the club and the Seniors finished middle of the table with a 9-9 record, while the Reserves finished a bit higher in 3rd place.

This season we started training earlier and harder with the motto “the fittest team wins”. Our goalkeeper/fitness coach ran us to death in the preseason. That fitness really showed when we started the season though.

Since we went on holiday to New Zealand just before the season started and I missed 4 weeks of training I again started the season with the Reserves. But after tallying 6 goals in the first few games including a hat trick, the Seniors decided to give me a run one game. I’ve played for the seniors every game since putting away 9 goals for them as well.

Through the season we’ve stuck to our motto “the fittest team wins” and kept our fitness training up. That fitness has seen us in first or second spot in the league all season and last Saturday when we beat the 2nd place team we put ourselves far enough ahead in points to win the league with 3 rounds left to play!

Its been a stellar season and has been probably the best team I’ve played with.

2011 Albert Park Seniors - League Champions