Cliques

Every team has this problem, the coach can say that cliques aren't present with the players but they are there. You have to popular players, the weird players, the players who all go to the same school, the player who doesn't go to school with anyone on the team, the "best" players, the "worst" players, the nice players, the mean players, and the new players. People can be really mean when they start making certain cliques and exclude people from them because they are "different". When I first joined the team, the one I am still with today, the girls didn't talk to me. One out of the popular group talked to me, she was very nice but she wasn't the "leader" of the group so even if she talked to me I wouldn't be in their clique. I stayed with the nice, quiet players. They accepted me for who I was and I didn't need to change for them. It kept me out of the drama too that was going on with other cliques. As the years passed and we all got better acquainted with each other, the groups started opening up and talking to everyone. I am very close to the girls that wouldn't give me that time of day when I first started. I don't hold grudges so even though they didn't talk to me I wasn't going to do that to them. Even though I was making new friends I didn't ditch the players who were with me from the start, unfortunately none of them are on the team anymore. Now that everyone is talking it is nice to make new friends and hang out outside of soccer. Everyone has a group that they prefer to hang and talk to but you should really be on talking terms with everyone even if you don't think you will be on that hangout stage anytime soon.