The Holtonian

Blackwatch Soccer

Tonight I went up to covenant after small group to play with the Blackwatch guys, my former hall when I was a Covenantor. IT was a lot of fun, though not sure all the guys thought so. We lost 4 to 2 to Ghetto but it was a great game. The guys played their hearts out but were just a little rusty. The hall's mainly freshman now and it takes at least a year to get the hang of covenant intramural soccer down. I played soccer my four years in High school on a pay to play team. It wasn't a scrubb team, it was more a too lazy to play for a real team.
      For instance, my high school won state in soccer 2 out of the four years I was there (if memory serves me) and the team was really good and really hard to be on. I never even bothered trying as I was not really the soccer type--I was close to 200 pounds and rather short. Our team (the one I played on) was mostly guys from my jr. high who just stuck together and played as sort of a way to keep in touch (we all went to different high schools). But as the years got on, more and more of my High School's scocer players got tired of the rigid coach and tired of being forced to do things like: Practice, not smoke, do well in school, so they started playing for our team. So in esssence we were a team of rejects. But we got some really good guys who just wanted to have a smoke before the game and play without the pressure of a soccer dynasty on their shoulders. To make a four year story short, I played with some high calibur guys that helped me to improve my game, and a lot of times they wouldn't show up and so I would have to man the defense on my own.
      I recall one time when I was pretty much the loan defender, no subs and everyone else was a half back or forward. I think we had about 3 forwards and 2 halves and the goalie. Basically all I did was if guys made it past the halfway line, I knocked them over. And thats how I learned to play soccer, I learned to use my body as a weapon, try to just frusterate the good players with my scrappy, kick them in the shins play.
      Then covenant came... where my kick them in the shins play was pretty much frowned upon. So, I had to become a cleaner player and in the end I developed a real love for the game, which game out win or lose. I found I could play a sport, play my heart out, and still lose miserably.
      Well we didn't lose miserably tonight, but we played our hearts out against a decent ghetto team. They weren't the best ghetto team I've played against, and in fact the first half they stunk but they got better when Cush showed up... Cush is a former covenant soccer player and kind of gave them an edge over us.
      For me playing Ghetto is like the Cardinals playing the Yankees in the world series. I feel like Blackwatch is the cardinals, a decent team that has some great guys but doesn't have the history, money, or tradition that the Yankees (ghetto) has. But like the cardinals we still got a good history, great players, but we'll always be the underdogs cause from the Midwest (founders dorm). Though I don't hate Ghetto like I hate the yankees, its more of a healthy competition thing. I remember back in my day at covenant the guys on the hall would get psyched to play ghetto in every sport (besides football cause it usually ended in a fight or us getting our tails kicked). Soccer especially cause if we all played our best we had a chance to beat them. 2nd South and 2nd Central came to dominate the latter half of my years at covenant in soccer, but I never got as psyched to play them as I did Ghetto. Maybe its cause Ghetto is where all the "cool guys" lived on campus and Blackwatch was more of the nobodies, video game geeks, but always left covenant with a wife.
      Anyway, it was fun and I hope I can play some more. Its a lot different type of exercise than what I normally get: mtn biking. Though I think the biking has kept me realitively in shape it hasn't kept me that in shape. Tomorrow's ride should be interesting as I will be most likely sore from tonights game.