Terry Phillips grew up on a fastball diamond, where it's a cardinal sin to boot the ball.
So when she took up soccer well into her adult life, having never played the game, her natural instinct was to reach out and touch the leather instead of letting her feet and forehead do the work.
"I'd never played soccer before and most of us had never played before -- I grew up in Quesnel and we played ball," said Phillips, a retired elementary school teacher. "It was crazy because there were offsides and you couldn't touch the ball with your hand. Coming from playing ball. my hand automatically came out.
"We were just a bunch of ladies trying to get soccer going in town and it was a ton of fun. I loved it because you got to play a lot more than in ball. You're moving all the time in soccer and you have fewer injuries because of that, not stop-and-go as much."
Phillips was 32 in 1987 when her friends, Paula Lesage and Nancy Stagg, convinced her to join soccer with the North Hart Dental Sprucecaps, one of three teams in the upstart Prince George Women's Soccer Association. Myatovic Construction was one of the original team sponsors and still funds a team in the league, which has grown to 18 teams.
Steve Lamble, who died last year of pancreatic cancer, was the original Sprucecaps coach that first year, their only coach that first season. The players thanked him for efforts by giving him a sweatshirt that designated him " Sprucecaps coach of the year."
The year before the PGWSA was formed there was just one Prince George women's team playing against teams from Quesnel and Terrace. Within a few years, graduating youth soccer players needed a place to play and there were four teams in the scene.
"Most of us were out there just to have fun and we got some sponsors on board," said Patti Smith, the first PGWSA president, who played with her older sister Nikie Gill on the Sprucecaps.
"In 1990 we had the B.C. Summer Games in Prince George and we ended up having two teams in that tournament and that's when we started to get a bit more serious. Even the youth league was just starting getting going. then. We didn't win [the Games tournament] but we were pretty happy with how we did."
In the early years of the league, women's soccer was played on school fields, starting at PGSS, then moving to Rob Brent elementary school. It wasn't until 2006 that the PGWSA moved to its own two-field facility, Michelle Lamarche Field.
"The fields were very rough, with potholes and who knows what else," said Phillips. "The calibre of the league is way higher now. As players from youth soccer come in, they bring up the calibre again."
For Phillips, the learning curve was steep, but she fell in love with the game and it's remained part of her life for the past 27 years. In all that time, Phillips has missed just one season. She got married in 1996 and wanted to devote more time to her husband and stepsons.
Phillips is a midfielder for Golden Girls, formerly Central Mohawk, which started the season in Division 2 but has since been relegated to Division 3. At 59, Phillips is the second-oldest player in the PGWSA, behind 60-year-old Yvonne Yaschuk, who plays for NIFI/Liquor Warehouse. Thirteen other players in the league are 50 or older.
"I'm in fairly good shape for my age but I've never been a runner," said Phillips, who also plays indoor soccer in the winter months. "I don't have a lot of skills, I didn't play until I was 32. A lot of these women have played since they were young, and have had coaching. I know having me on the team has to be frustrating to them, but we always get along and everybody on the team is encouraging.
Notwithstanding a motorcycle injury that sidelined her with a hip injury for a few weeks earlier this month, the key for Phillips and her soccer longevity is to make sure she gets a good warm-up before she leaves for the field, then have a post-game stretching session when she gets back home.
"I enjoy it and I keep learning new skills," she said. "As long as can keep doing that and they let me play, I'll play."
Mary Odiorne, who also plays for the Golden Girls, just celebrated her 50th birthday and for inspiration looks to Phillips and the energy she brings to the field. Odiorne was also a late bloomer, taking up the game at age 25, but she bought into it in a big way. She's been a player for 25 years, was as a youth coach for four years with her three kids' teams, and is also a referee.
Odiorne usually plays midfield, but has played every position including goalkeeper. It doesn't matter where she plays, as long as she gets to play. Booting the ball around on soccer turf offers stress relief that the geographic information systems technician can't find anywhere else.
"I love soccer. I love being outside and running around and being totally ineffective on the field," Odiorne said.
"It's two hours of my life where I'm not living my life," she said. "I want to be out here and I want to be playing, and that gets me riding my bike and running and lifting weights. I do all of my exercising so I can play soccer. This is my inspiration to do other fitness activities. I'm in better shape than when I was 25."
