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May 24, 2001
Carolina Courage Danielle Fotopoulos sends
you a day from her diary
Diary
for 5-21-01
Hello, my name is Danielle Fotopoulos and I play for the Carolina
Courage. I am 25 years old and I have a husband named George Fotopoulos,
who works at Lousiana State University. I also, have a 6 month old
baby girl named, Alexia. It is so great being able to play soccer
and be a mom at the same time. I feet very fortunate to babble to
live out my dreams of being a mom and getting to play professional
soccer. Even better, I get to do them both at the same time. I love
being a wife, too. For mother's day George made our little family
shirts that say "Team Fotop" on them. Why? Because we are a team.
We support each other in what we do and we are helping one another
reach our goals together. It is one way I stay inspired. Our family
is a team and we love each other very much.
Well, a little bit about the team. I play forward and I am number
6 on the team. I love being number 6. I got that number because
I was born on the 24th of March and when I played basketball that
was my number. However, when I played soccer they did not have numbers
that went that high. So I added 2 plus 4, which of course is 6.
That was about me. Now about the team. We do a lot together that
is very fun. We have a cookouts after every home game at my pool
at my apartment. We all usually eat till we cannot eat anymore and
go swimming if it is hot. We sit around and talk about the game
and about what we could have done better or what we did good.
We all live near by each other. Most of us live about 2 miles apart
from each other. So it is just a drive away. We have game night
at least ounce every two weeks. It is alit of fun. We play Tri-Bond,
Scrabble, cards, and Charades. When we play Charades we make up
the things we have to act out.
It is usually
about ourselves. We make fun of each other in a fun way through
the Charades. We act out each other playing golf, being a cheerleaders,
and other fun stuff. We also, have taco night. That is usually on
Wednesday's. We all bring over something to contribute for the tacos
and we all sit around and eat and talk. Alexia comes along and has
a great time.
It is very good for our team to do fun stuff away from practice
because this encourages team bonding away from practices. We spend
alit of time together on and off the field. We have practice everyday
from about 10 am to 12:30 pm and then we lift together and sometimes
do Yoga together. Yoga is so much fun, it is really fun watching
each other stretch and fall and do "center heart", this is a yoga
pose.
Also, we do hydrotherapy. This is stretching in the water. This
makes our muscles feel great and allows us to stretch our muscles
further than we would if we were out of the water. We make a big
huge wave pool when we are in there together. The whole time I am
in the pool and at Yoga I continually think about how awesome it
is that we get paid to do this. We get paid to play soccer. We get
paid to do Yoga. We get paid to do hydrotherapy. We get paid to
run. We get paid to have fun. We get paid too....you get the picture.
No matter how hard practice is or no matter how hard we run, it
is awesome, because we live a great life. The best is we have each
other to remind one another of the great privilege we have been
given. When we think practice is bad or we are having a bad day
we remind each other of the
opportunity we have been given. Well, about our playing so far.
It has been a rough start for us, the Courage have not yet won a
game and we have played some great soccer. However, in this league
playing great soccer is not enough. We must do what ever it takes
to win. This past weekend we played bad and still came back and
tied. This was very good for our team moral. However, it is very
difficult for all of us because none of us have ever lost this many
games before. We are all keeping positive and are building on the
tie.
Personally, I have been feeling OK. I have not played my best soccer
yet. It is hard because I feel a lot of the responsibility for the
result of the team scores. I know that it takes the whole team to
win and lose games, but I have been given opportunities to score
in the games and have missed. Which happens, I just have to learn
how to get the ball back and shoot again. As a forward you will
mess up the difference between you and other forwards is how you
handle it. Will you get frustrated at yourself and stop shooting,
or will you hold your head up high and go after the next opportunity
and put the ball in the back of the net. I choose to give it another
try and if that does not work another try. I will keep going until
I put the ball in the back of the net. Being relentless and continually
going after the game is what all of us must do as a team, and we
do it. Well, I hope that you will continue to watch what happens
to the Carolina Courage. We play the Spirit this Saturday May 26th.
Please, watch as we come together as a team. Support the WUSA for
it has changed my life forever and has changed women's sports forever.
Go Courage! Go Team Fotop!
See related feature Women's Soccer World ©January/February
1999
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