I don’t usually post twice in one week. Mostly, because I usually don’t have the time. But this post is for me. I an getting to the stage where the kids are starting to grow up and they are getting ready to fly the nest. And so I guess I am paying closer attention to the things that happen, and the moments I am experiencing with them still around.
This weekend I had a memorable moment kind of day. It happened at my son’s soccer game. This team has been together in some form or another for several years. I even coached some of the guys for a few seasons. When I coached them, I remember one of the guys, ran kind of weird, and we had to work on his running to get his speed up. We also had to work with quite a few of them on footwork and strategy, and passing- you know, the normal soccer stuff. One of the things we generally didn’t have to work on was heart. These guys always tried hard. They didn’t always remember their foot work, or strategy, or where to pass, but they always gave 110 percent. We even had a special award each week for the team players that played outside of themselves during the game. They were the guys that went above and beyond, the ones that pushed harder, fought through fatigue, played a position they weren’t used to or didn’t like, and played it well for the good of the team. There was not a single guy on the team that didn’t win that award. On any given day, they all had a chance to take themself to a higher plane, and shine. All of them took that opportunity at some point, and most of the boys acheived star status several times over the course of the season.
Flash forward a couple of years. Those young boys are now growing up. They are strong, and fast, and really good soccer players. They also lose just about every game.
Nobody can quite figure it out. They have flashes of absolute brilliance. And then they all fall apart, always at the same time, and their defenses go down, they let a couple of goals through, and that is all she wrote. Another loss.
This weekend, we arrived to play another game. Against the best team in the league. In 94 degree heat. On a completely sunlit turf field. Smack in the middle of the day. I, for one, just assumed the guys would get crushed. I didn’t have even a single glimmer of hope for this game. Oh, ye of little faith! This team played their hearts out, as they always do, but they didn’t falter this time. And that kid that couldn’t run? He is now almost a man, a blazingly fast guy, with a singular thought of scoring for his team. Which he did- 3 times!! The whole team made great decisions, they remembered their strategy, they made good passes, and of course they never lost their heart. They ended up coming back to tie 3-3. I won’t go into the details of the goal that was called back on a bogus referee call. It didn’t matter. These guys showed their true spirit and a tie against the best team in the league was as good as a win, in my mind.
So while I was fully expecting a crushing defeat, I was treated to watching a fabulous soccer game. And my respect for these guys, which had always been great, grew even higher. Not because of their mad soccer skills, or because they are freaking, fast runners. But during that game, I was reminded that on any given day, despite all odds, it can be your day to shine, if you don’t give up!
Are you ready to go for it?
