According to Merriam-Webster.com, a “weekend warrior” is defined as “a person who participates in a usually physically strenuous activity only on weekends or part-time.” That often refers to those men and women who participate in sports as a leisure activity. You know the type: the beer-drinking softball leagues, the bowling night with the gals, etc.

I won’t say I’m the most physically fit guy my age, in fact, since I retired from umpiring baseball a few years ago, I don’t get much exercise. But, on the other hand, I’m not overweight and out of shape, either. I guess I’m somewhere in between. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been successfully following a low-carb diet and trying to get in better shape.

This time of year, however, I do enjoy getting a chance to kick a soccer ball around on a daily basis.

I’m the assistant coach for boys and girls varsity soccer at Summit Christian Academy in Broken Arrow, and I still enjoy getting out on the pitch with our teams and play. Because of the recent cold and wet weather, we’ve been practicing at an indoor soccer facility, anxiously hoping for a warm spell so we can practice outdoors.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to slide on the indoor turf to get to a ball, just out of my reach, and shoot it toward the goal. However, when I stood up, I had a brush burn, or raspberry – as we used to call them, from my shin to the top of my knee. It hurt, but not as bad as it did later when I got in the shower.

This past Friday, two weeks exactly since the previous injury, I was back on the turf playing in a scrimmage with our boys and girls teams combined. I figured, being the smart soccer guy that I am, I would just sit back at a defender position and hopefully not have to do a whole lot of running.

Fifteen minutes into this scrimmage, one of our boys took a rocket of a shot on goal. I decided to block it with my foot, in the air, in hopes of kicking it away. The shot was so hard, the torque bent my foot backward, hyperextending my ankle. I was successful in saving a goal, however, I was in a lot of pain.

Like any good athlete; I walked it off.

After a couple minutes, the pain went away and I continued to play for the final 15 minutes of practice.

Later that evening, my ankle was throbbing, so I figured a little ice and ibuprofen and I’ll be okay. That wasn’t a very solid diagnosis.

The next morning, I woke up in pain, with a big knot on the ankle bone on the outside of the right ankle, and the inside of the ankle was quite swollen and a lovely shade of violet. This concerned me, and since it was a Saturday, I visited a local urgent care center.

After a few x-rays, it was determined that there wasn’t any broken or fractured bone, but that the ligaments on both sides of my ankle were torn and/or sprained. I was fitted for a boot-type air cast, and will have to wear it for at least a week. Then a couple weeks of physical therapy, and not over working that ankle.

The thing that got me the most in all of this, however, is when the doctor looked at me and said, “no soccer for at least six weeks.”

With the diet and commitment to exercise, this is going to set me back a bit, but more than that, I just really love coaching soccer by actually getting out there and showing these young kids how to play the game. That’s what really stinks about this weekend warrior suffering a season-ending injury.