"To Win With Humility; To Lose With Grace"

 

Over the years, Coach and I have worked with good teams. Our win/loss record and the total number of goals we’ve scored versus the goals we’ve given up for the last twelve years are proof that we have had good teams. But we have not always had great teams.

 

On Saturday we drove down to Exeter to face their JV team for the only time this year. The last time I coached a soccer game in Exeter was thirteen years ago when I with the girls JV. I was not impressed with the match. After their team jubilantly celebrate their eighth goal in the first twenty minutes, I had to interrupt the coach’s phone call to ask him if he was planning to take his starting squad off to play the rest of his bench. They clearly had more skills than we did. He was reluctant. I hoped that our JV1 match would improve my last impression.

 

The Friday before our game, we learned that three of our starters were taking the SATs, so they couldn’t catch the bus down to Exeter. Coach volunteered to stay behind and drive them down after they got out. We thought that we had figured out this problem. Then during classes on Saturday, we learned that two of our starters were in the Health Center and wouldn’t be able to join us. We would have to make some creative decisions about how we would begin the game. When we left campus at 11:30, we had a total of twelve players and hoped we’d get two more.

 

We warmed up and woke up after the long drive. Then with four minutes before the game was scheduled to start, we saw the van arrive! We were excited and ready to play.

 

Exeter won the first possession, and when they kicked off and proceeded to deftly pass the ball around their backfield, I began to twitch a bit from the memories of my last bout. If our boys were intimidated, they didn’t show it. They came after the ball with determination. And although Exeter kept the play in our end for the first three minutes, we defended well (Max van Dijk saved one shot and deflected another) and eventually got it down into their end. John Erwin sent a beautiful cross to Yohan Do who took our first shot, but the goalkeeper was there to grab it. Trong Phan also sent aloft to Yohan, but this too was saved. We began to come together and play well. Exeter had the talent, but we showed determination and grit.

 

Suddenly the field was overpowered by a loudspeaker belting out music. At first, I thought it was a mistake; then I thought maybe a team was warming up on another field and would soon adjust the volume; then I learned that one of the Exeter coaches has turned it on. This was one to be one more bizarre thing to happen during a bizarre season of firsts: regular time outs, calls thirty years outdated, creative drop balls and direct kicks, and major calls reversed. Apparently, we needed a soundtrack for our game. Coach and I said nothing.

 

Throughout the middle of the field, Bridger Close and Alisdair MacPhail hustled and took possession from high passes and one-on-ones. Amir Lesbeck and Evan Crandlemire contributed solid passing and foot skills to assist John and Tom Huang up near the net. Both teams had opportunities and both goalkeepers kept the nets free. As always, the defensive line of Cody Nguyen, Will Haynes, Brian Lee, and Nick Wilder proved to be an impenetrable force. Coach turned to me at one point and said, “This match is a battle of Guts versus Talent.” And it was. We were holding our own through pure pluck.

 

Then with only eleven minutes left in the half, Exeter earned a throw-in. One of their defenders hurled in the ball for a distance not seen since Levy Byrd played for us back in 2014. The ball fell neatly to one of their strikers at the top of the box and he sent a grass burner to the far post. Suddenly the music was turned off and an eerie silence followed. What we found was, without the music, the quality of play and sportsmanship diminished.

 

Two minutes later, Exeter got in close with a one-on-one with Max, but he made an amazing save. Exeter kept the pressure on and with 1:40 left they earned a PK from a slide tackle inside the box. They scored their second goal. One minute later they entered deep into the right corner, sent a ball into the middle, and headed the ball in for another goal. It was an amazing play, though we were down by three.

 

At the half, Coach complimented the boys on how they were playing one of their best matches of the year, despite the score. He let them know that he was proud of the way that they stayed focused and worked together. We were not ready to give up.

 

The second half was rougher than the first (Alisdair was pinched!), but we kept driving up the field. Kohki Sinohara was, in the words of Yohan, “a tank.” He muscled through the midfield and passed on the outside. Then at the twenty-six-minute mark, Max dove and deflected away a close shot, but a striker was there to finish it off. At the five-minute mark, an almost identical play happened again, and Exeter was up by five. And yet, our boys did not give up:

            4:30 Bridger passed off to Alisdair and his shot was saved

            3:42 Trong sent a ball out to Yohan who put it back in, but it was wide.

            2:42 Cody took a Direct Kick up to Yohan. He gets by the defenders and sends the ball over the net.

 

At the final whistle we had lost, but we had never given up fighting. This is a team with a lot of character and one who likes to play together. It is the guts, grit, determination, and sheer joy of working and playing together that makes this one of the greatest teams Coach and I have had the pleasure of working with.

 

We have our last home game this Wednesday. We will face off against New Hampton school for the second and last time of the year.