By Kelly Monaghan

Staff Photographer

@kellyymonaghan

“Did you hear about Oscar’s amazing goal in the first half of the Chelsea vs. Manchester City game?”

“What do you know? You don’t even play soccer.”

If you’ve ever fielded a comment like this one, you are not alone.

All throughout my childhood, I’d had little to no interest in soccer despite my dad and brother’s attempts to show me the sport. I even remember being put into a soccer camp as a toddler and crying enough to get picked up early.

But it was not easy to avoid the sport when I was constantly attending my brother’s soccer games and hearing my family’s conversations about it. So I picked up information about it here and there but only about enough to get me through watching the World Cup every four years.

Then the summer before my freshman year, NBC Sports started airing the Barclays Premier League, which is England’s (or arguably the world’s) most competitive soccer league. This may not seem that interesting but it was a big step in increasing the popularity of the soccer all over America, since unlike most of the world it’s not the dominant sport.

My dad introduced me to all 20 of the different teams and some top players and day by day I learned to like it more. I realized there’s a lot more to watching a sport than just knowing a few people on the best teams.

And now, two years after my initial introduction to soccer, I consider myself very knowledgeable. I know the team dynamics, managers and stadiums of over twenty teams. I even have the discipline to wake up at 6 a.m. some mornings to watch games (because of the time difference with England).

A majority of students at Coppell High School attend football games or participate in the game by some means every Friday night in the fall and be effective fans, without having any prior background playing football. Not everyone is athletically talented or gifted enough to play a sport, even if they truly enjoy the sport.

Fans are necessary to sports team’s revenues. Without the NFL’s millions of dedicated fans purchasing merchandise every season, creating fantasy leagues and most importantly attending games, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is now.

No one cares or knows more about a team than loyal fans. Whether someone plays the sport or not is irrelevant to how much they support and understand it as a fan.