It's been about four weeks now that the co-ed soccer season started, and I have to tell you, I love my team. We started off calling ourselves Guns n Roses, but the official name is now Taya Talent (taya is the Chamorro word for "nothing"). We have yet to win a game -- two ties and two loses. But it is actually the "nothing talent" that makes this such a great team. Brad and Angelo do a great job coaching and keeping everyone's spirits up. If I were on one of those teams that had a bunch of good players, I wouldn't be playing much. I played the entire 80 minutes of our last game!
When we go into our half-time huddles, Angelo and Brad give some pointers, but spend a lot of time encouraging us, telling us what we're doing well. They even say, "hey, we're playing a better team, so don't worry about the score." They don't yell or roll their eyes at missed kicks or bad plays. They're out there to have fun, which makes it all enjoyable.
In order to become a decent soccer player there are really only three things that I need to do: learn to dribble the ball, learn to kick the ball (preferably with some power) and gain some lung capacity. Just these three little things...
Now, on the other hand, I bring three things to my team. First, I'm lighter than most people on the field, which also makes me faster than most. Second, I don't give up on the ball. And, third, I'm fearless. During our last game, the opposing goalie punted the ball out to where I was standing at midfield, and by golly, I got under that thing and headed it. Never mind that I misjudged the distance a bit, so the ball caught me off balance, knocked me to the ground (like some kind of cartoon character getting hit by an anvil) and flew off in the wrong direction towards my own goal. Who cares! I'm fearless.
I'm having loads of fun, and getting into better shape. My legs hurt less now after practices. I can't say that I've gained any soccer skills, but I expect they'll come. This is the most enjoyable thing I've done in a long time.
2 comments:
Nice try. You're still not starting.
Just kidding.
I appreciate this post.
So what happened at the game this week? No one seems to want to talk about it .. just vague references to "a breakdown".
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