A Sporting Culture

With encouragement from a new friend, I recently joined a Dutch field hockey club in Rotterdam.  It's the biggest club in the Netherlands with over 2,000 members.  Men, women, teenagers, and children all play for HCR (Hockey Club Rotterdam) in green shorts or kilts, green socks, and white shirts.  The team I play for, Dames 12, is made up of roughly 15 women of about my age, give or take about five years.  I've been fascinated by the hockey culture.  We practice once a week and play games every Sunday from September to December and March to May.  There is a clubhouse with a bar, eight fields, and a stadium where the top teams play.  We play teams from around the Netherlands, while the top teams play international clubs as well.  Some of the women that I play with have been playing for 20 years!  I played in middle and high school and loved the sport, and it's coming back to me.  I'm not a star player, but I can hold my own these days.  It's interesting to be part of the club, especially since most people I know don't play sports competitively past high school or college.  Though kickball leagues have become pretty popular in Portland recently, adult sporting in Maine seemed a bit more limited.  Here in the Netherlands, there is an active adult sporting culture.  From soccer to horseback riding, many people belong to a sporting club and continue to play for their whole lives.  It's great to see people my parent's age still playing!