ELIJAH MANCHESTER

League 1 Reserve Team

As a result of Covid 19, all athletes have been under quarantine for the last two months. Over
those two months, I've learned many things about myself. Most importantly, I realized how
much I love soccer. When I play soccer I am in my happy place and when that was taken away
from me it messed with me mentally. I felt lost and I felt like a big part of my life was missing.
Also, being away from my team impacted me because they were like my second family. I would
look forward to seeing them at every practice because they never failed to brighten up my day.
As the weeks went on, I kept up my fitness and trained by myself in my backyard while I waited
patiently for the day that we would go back to training. July 7th marked the day of our first session back. Although I didn't get to see the whole team because we were limited to having 10 people on the field at once, it was still great to be back with some of the boys. In summary, this
pandemic has shown me how much soccer really means to me, and it made me even more
hungry to go chase my dream of becoming a professional soccer player.