My wifes cell beeped this morning around 6:20am, on the other end was a crying 21 year-old. Our college soccer kid. The news was bad. She had torn her ACL and damaged her meniscus playing on her school soccer team. It’s the second time that we’ve gotten that phone call in the last four years.
My wife was trying to console her without becoming emotional herself. But as we are all apt to do when it comes to tough news for our children, the tears came anyways.
While the two were talking, I had to sit down because the moment just hit me like a ton of bricks. Her time as a soccer player has been non-stop, other than me trying to turn her into a basketball kid for 6-months when she was a 7th grader. Since Brenna was 5, we’ve been that family that has spent most of our weekends at soccer fields around Arizona and beyond.
Once at a tourney in Temecula, it was soooo cold and hailing, I sat in the car and watched her fight through the elements in tears. If you have soccer daughters, you’re probably familiar with the website https://soccergrlprobs.com
I saw my daughter develop lifelong friends. I saw her fight with a State player of the year candidate, while playing on her high school team. We sat at a table in downtown Chandler when she signed the college scholarship paperwork. When she left Arizona for Chicago, I remember her crying next to me most of the flight. Now, I doubt she’ll ever move back to Arizona. She loves the people and the Midwestern life.
Last year she and I drove to Chicago. Three days, just my daughter and I, driving cross-country. Three days that I will always cherish. 
I wish that I could make her pain go away. I wish the tears coming down my face right now where the only ones today. It hurts to think that her time in competitive sports has come to an end. God has a different path for her to take now. As a dad, I just don’t know what I can do or say today that would take away the pain/frustration that she is feeling.
So today has turned into a “I just don’t care day”. College football, Mayweather v McGregor, Dbacks, any of it…It may sound harsh, but when that phone call comes, nothing else matters…
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Brad Cesmat
Media personality Brad Cesmat first rose to fame in Southern California with the launching of "The Mighty 690" all-sports radio station in the late 1980's and early 90's. Brad came to Arizona in 1993 to begin a 10-year run at KTAR Radio followed by nine years at KTVK-TV in Phoenix. Brad is the Founder/ CEO of Sports360AZ.com. His vision of multi platform content marketing through sports began in September of 2011. Cesmat has served on the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army for the last 18 years. He and his wife Chris have four children.