Best Game

The grandson played probably his best game of the varsity soccer season against what is probably the best team in their division and played it on a wet field in intermittent rain and temperatures below 60 degrees F. And they still lost 5-1.

Even so, his is a small suburban school which couldn't even field a team last season due to insufficient numbers. Against a team that was not only winner of the league championship, but of the state title in their division as well.

Jason's team has played every game this season with as little as a single sub on the bench against teams which could theoretically put three full teams on the field and still have two or three subs left on the bench. Literally.

I know this to be true because, among the die-hard fans who show up for every game, there are parents/grandparents like myself who love to torture themselves and their fellow attendees by doing headcounts at the start of every game.

(The game before this one, against another of the powerhouse teams in our division, we were literally subbing in kids who had come out of the game with injuries due to having only two on the bench. Which speaks to the level of hard-nosed dedication on this team.

We lost that one 7-2, I think, and our beleaguered goalie had something like two dozen saves compared to 3 by the opposing goalkeeper.)

So, my hat's off to these kids for the development in their game and the incredible character they've shown over the course of a very tough season. They're hard-nosed battlers to a man and I wish them all nothing but the best.

And that they carry the hard-learned lessons of this season with them for the rest of their lives...

LPK
Dreamwidth
10.4.2019 

Aftermath

After I dropped my grandson off at his mom's following the soccer game, I returned to the house and took his totally-soaked shoes down to the basement. I stuffed each one with about a half roll of paper towels and then set them on a 16 x 16 paver block that I'd placed in the utility sink.

Clamped to the edge of the sink, above the paver, is a 250-watt heat lamp which heats the block below the shoes at the same time that it's heating the shoes from above. It takes a couple of days to dry them out that way, but since I hadn't fired-up the furnace yet, it's the only way I had to do it.

(One internet genius suggested putting them in the microwave, but that ain't happening. Not in my microwave and not in this lifetime. I can only imagine the smell of dying micro-organisms wafting through my house, not to mention the flavor of my next meal, lol.)

It wasn't until this morning that I realized I'd forgotten to drop off his spare soccer shoes for practice this afternoon. So I texted him, said the others were drying, and that I'd bring the spares when I picked him up for practice after school.

That was around noon, which is when he usually texts me if there's something he wants me to know. A short while later, I heard back. Coach had cancelled practice for today because so many of the kids were out with injuries. Damn!

I asked him if he was one of them, because he'd been in the thick of it the whole game, and was relieved when he said that he wasn't.

The thing is, I can't help but feel that this is at least partly a result of not having enough players to substitute when there's an injury or when a few minutes on the bench is needed because a player has been "putting the pedal to the metal" for almost 90 minutes.

Which is how soccer, as opposed to just about any other sport, is played. Without helmets or pads or any other protective gear except two or three ounces of plastic shin guards and the socks to hold them in place.

But, that's the game. We have, I think, three more to finish the outdoor season in scholastic competition. Then it's back indoors where he's rejoining his old club team, the Eastwood Fire.

I'm incredibly proud of him and his teammates, the way they've left it all on the field, game after undermanned game. I only hope that they all come back next year and that there are enough underclassmen in the pipeline to not only replace the departing seniors but to maybe put a few butts on that long, mostly-empty bench.

Because they'd all undoubtedly get the chance to play--along with a better chance of staying healthy and maybe even grabbing a few wins...

LPK
Dreamwidth
10.4.2019