We Go Together Like Soccer and Orange Slices

I've never been much for watching sports. I just can't get into it. I mean, I don't know these people and that makes it really hard for me to care when they score points. I will say that I've always enjoyed watching cheerleading competitions on ESPN--because why are they so good?!

There are only two sports that I have watched regularly in my life: soccer and volleyball. I started watching volleyball by accident. A friend of mine in college used to do stats and libero tracking at the volleyball games. She was finding it really difficult to do both so I took over the libero tracking. In case you're wondering, the libero is a person on the volleyball team who plays any position and gets switched around in the game a lot. The rule is that the libero has to go in and come out for the same person (so if the libero goes in for #5, then #5 has to come back in for the libero). It can get kinda confusing so I that's what I kept track of. Georgetown has an amazing volleyball team so it was always pretty fun to watch. For whatever reason I really enjoyed it.

I used to watch soccer because my brother, Will, played it from the ages of 4 to 18. He could've played at the college level but Purdue doesn't have a men's soccer team. I guess I understand soccer because I watched him grow up playing the game, learning about confusing issues such as "off sides." If you're not familiar with youth soccer leagues I will tell you what I believe is the one true staple of the sport: orange slices.

Soccer is the only sport I've seen where the kids get to have a snack in the middle of the game. It makes sense; it's a very intense sport with lots of running around outside. Each family would take turns alternating who brought snacks (and drinks) for half-time and after the game. From a snack perspective, after the game was a complete free-for-all. Hostess and Little Debbie snack cakes were quite popular. You knew the family providing the snacks was rich if they brought pop for after the game; pop is expensive.

Half-time snacks were another issue entirely because the kids still had half a game to play. The snack needed to be healthy, but still tasty enough for kids to eat. Enter: orange slices! I can't think of a time I saw something other than orange slices served at half-time (with some sort of wet naps or baby wipes because they're inevitably sticky). Honestly, I can't think of soccer and not think of orange slices...and vice versa.

Soccer is actually the only professional sport I can watch on TV and I don't know why. Professional soccer can be very boring. Case in point: In the season 9 Simpsons episode entitled The Cartridge Family, everyone in Springfield goes to a soccer match (and instead of peanuts they have paella) and then a riot breaks out over who can leave first because the game is so boring...and then Homer buys a gun, it's really a hilarious episode, you should check it out.

One thing I have noticed about professional soccer is that the concept of half time orange slices seems to have gone by the wayside. In my mind, this is a big mistake. Maybe it's because the players' moms aren't at the games; but I think their wives could handle the task. I'd like to see Posh Spice carting a huge tray of orange slices to David Beckham and his teammates. I guess I just think it's important not to lose a certain element of childhood innocence in life.

Why did I write this post? Because I was laying in bed and realized we have mad crazy amounts of oranges in the kitchen and I love oranges. Then I was trying to decide if I'd peel it or slice it up; and, as previously stated, I can't think of orange slices without thinking about soccer so this post was a logical move. All I know is, I'm probably going to eat some oranges today.