You are using your body and feeling your power for yourself when you are an athlete.

And that, people see that and they want to tap into that power too.

That was Victoria Jackson, and this is founding football.

When my daughter began playing soccer at four years old, we just wanted her to have fun.

That was the same time that we as parents began surveying the landscape of activities for children

and chose the most familiar and likely for her to pursue.

Dance, music, sports, and specifically soccer.

Lots of girls played soccer, especially here in the Northeast part of the United States.

These are just the things you learn talking to

other parents at playdates or preschool events. So we signed her up and took her to the field for the

first time on a cool fall Saturday morning. She hated shingards, so they went over her socks.

But the jersey was fun, though in hindsight, I still think it's

absurd that they gave four-year-olds a jersey because the games were not games. They were frankly

just organized chaos, at absolute best. Still, we took pictures and had high hopes that she would

like it. Quickly, we changed pictures and had high hopes that she would like it.

Quickly, we changed our goal.

The first few times we went to the field, she was so overwhelmed by the chaos and cluster of 10 kids running on wet grass and mud, chasing this rolling ball, that she wanted to walk off the field altogether.

We saw that look of uncertainty turn into terror.

So at that point, we just wanted her to stay on the field for a few minutes to decide if maybe she'd have fun playing the actual game once she saw the game.

Just give it a chance. We'd tell her, stand there. You don't have to

participate. Just watch. Then, if you don't want to come back next week, that's fine. But don't

decide until you at least stay on the field. She remained skeptical of the chaos, but eventually

...