Celebrate Clive

Daily as I leave home every morning a colour photograph of a smiling soccer coach hugging a heavy trophy is there to encourage me as I approach the door. Scribbled on its border are his inspiring words, “Earn your right to play!”

           

This simple message is underlined by the fact that my soccer coach, Clive Charles, died six months after the photograph was taken and exactly nine years ago today. He was faithful to his ideals to the end, and his spiritual presence bids me to follow in his footsteps.

“Earn your right to play”? Clive’s motto referred in particular to the conditional right of each of the 20 women who were privileged to wear the purple and white jerseys, which proclaimed that they were jointly the University of Portland Pilots soccer team. Acclaimed as one of the best collegiate women's soccer teams in the USA, the team has included several Olympians (most recently London 2012 saw Christine Sinclair and Sophie Schmidt win bronze medals with Canada and Megan Rapinoe a gold with the USA), and Clive an Olympic coach.

Clive made it clear to us that earning a right to play applied to more than just the soccer field. It embraces all facets of life equally. In soccer and in life, he expected a high standard of

Life After: Some Surprising Revelations

I talk Life After Soccer for @OurGameMagazine (click here). 

Click thru the digital magazine while you're there, it'll become your go-to source for everything you want to know about women's soccer in North America and abroad. Current pro player and hilarious comic Tiffany Weimer (@TIffanyWeimer) is the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and a former Ireland national player that grew up in Canada and played and studied in the USA and Scandanavia, Ciara McCormack (@CiaraMcCormack), is the Contributing Editor. It's a gold mine!

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