Reminiscences of SPU Women'sSoccer Xiaohui Li,PhD (Alumnus of 55K, Department of TraditionalChinese Medicines) Clinical Pharmacology Reviewer, FDA, Silver Spring, USA
“What?! You ever played soccer?” This is the first response when peopleheard I was a key player in the women’s soccer team in my college years as it is difficult in drawing a line to connect the sweet looking lady in petite size in front with this tough sport. Speaking of me and soccer, the story has to be traced back to more than 28 years ago， the Spring of 1989， when I joined the women soccer team, as a 17 years old freshman, to represent my department (Department of Traditional Chinese Medicines). It was the first year when women soccer teams participated in the university soccer tournament. In addition to me, my teammates (An Guo, Jie Hou, Juanying Yang, and Qiaohua Cao from 55K) had previous training or exposure to soccer. Although many of other teammates had almost zero experience in playing soccer, they were in great physical quality and served as main players in the university track teams (Xiaohong Yang, Lihong Cai,,and Haili Min from 53K; Jing Liu and Hongmei Li from 54K)
Writing here, I couldn’t help laughing when recalling the scene of a group of young girls flocking to chase a ball on the soccer field，it was so amusing. However, nothing could stop our enthusiasm in soccer. After inexhaustibly training and, of course, the dedicated instruction from the men soccer coaches, the girls gradually learned to run and pass balls, stop balls, break through people, take shots, and finally were able to play the individual roles and coordinate with teammates, and successfully executed the tactics planned prior to the games!
Back then, my department (Department of Traditional Chinese Medicines) had only two classes (approximately 60 students) each year and was small compared with other departments such as Department of Pharmacy and Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering. The results from my department men soccer team was not fully up to expectations and fluctuated at the 3rd place. In contrast, the women soccer team made brilliant achievements, which brought glory to the department. In that first-time women soccer tournament, the women team made a clean sweep and proudly won the championship. The team continued to hold the title during the next two years when I was in the college.. After I graduated, the girls inspired popular confidence and won two successive championships, successfully achieving five consecutive titles. I played as center-forward and left-side vanguard in the games. Attibuting to the good soccer skills and scoring count in the first-year women soccer tournament, I was honored to receive the title of Miss Soccer (aka, Best woman soccer player), a somewhat petty-bourgeois tilte in that age.
Time flies and memory fades out. But I can still remember the dusty smell of the soccer field and the sweaty and exciting young faces. I appreciate soccer since I believe what soccer brings to me is way beyond soccer itself as a physical sport. The sprite of soccer has been craved in my deep heart to imperceptibly influence on me. All the characters required for good soccer players are also applicable to our career and daily lives, i.e. keen observation, accurate judgement, good implemental capability, determination, the capability of handling unexpected situations, and team working by understanding others and self-reflection. I miss my soccer time at Shenyang Pharamceutical Univeristy, and wish the young alumini can enjoy soccer as I did and grow up with it.