Because life is so surreal lately I haven’t known what to write about. However, in my Facebook memories, this popped up from 2016:

A major blowout for the Sabertooth Pack this morning. So major that when the score reached 5-0 I told our two best players that they weren’t allowed to take a goal shot unless they’d passed the ball to at least one other teammate first. That led to some great passing and opportunities for the other players to get into the action. Thaddeus really pushed himself beyond his comfort zone and won the sportsmanship medal for the week. Only two more weeks left!

And I thought, this is a story I want to tell again, and it’s long. So here’s a story about soccer, perseverance, risk-taking, courage, illness, inspiration, and victory.

Thaddeus was playing a recreational soccer league. I loved this league because the main focus was having fun, not winning. Teams met on Saturdays only. The first half of the Saturday meeting was practice and learning skills from the staff and the second half was playing a game. Each “season” was 8 weeks long and kids were randomly assigned to teams. The organization was professionally run but the coaches were all volunteers, and since nobody else stepped up, for that season I decided to step in as the coach for Thaddeus’ team. I had played soccer for a few years in elementary and I think middle school (?) but I was far from talented (I have bad knees). I wasn’t even 100% sure of the rules, but the league people (read: college students) served as referees and the rules were modified with a half-height goal, no hands or any contact above the waist allowed even for the goalie, and so on.

Each team chose their own name and I’ll have to interrupt here for a second to take you back to Thaddeus’s very first team where the team chose the best name ever. Some of the kids wanted to be the Sharks, some wanted to be the Power Soccer Balls, some wanted to be the Swordfish. They ended up with the most epic name: Power Swordfish Balls. I am 100% not kidding you. Power Swordfish Balls. I burst into laughter and then looked around and none of the other adults were laughing. I’m like “Am I think only one who finds this hilarious and perhaps a bit inappropriate?” Nope, just me. Oh my god, I seriously crack up even thinking about it. Power Swordfish Balls forever!

This team, however, was the Sabertooth Pack. Thaddeus is very timid and only wanted to play goalkeeper, although I did get him out each game. We had two excellent forwards, one kid who was a massive power kicker, a kid I called “Fancy Feet” because she was all about getting in there and stealing the ball from other players, another excellent midfielder, and Thaddeus. Each team had 6 players and we could field 5 and switch out a rest period for the 6th. The Sabertooth Pack was quite good. My big contribution was crossing up and down the field yelling “Yes! That’s the way to do it! Great Pass!” etc. The kids were just awesome.

Anyway, move to the last game of the season. Sabertooth Pack qualified for the final! We were playing for first place! The problem? Literally half the team was sick. Fancy Feet had the flu, my power kicker was down with strep throat, and one of my forwards had a fever. We had one forward, a midfielder, and a goalkeeper. The ref asked if we wanted to forfeit the game, and my 3 players gave a resounding no. We were going to do our best. If we had to, we’d go down fighting.

The other team had all 6 players and as I mentioned was allowed to field 5 at a time. Here’s where I get a little judgey because it was at the coach’s discretion to decide how to use his players. Personally I would have fielded 3 or 4 at a time to make it more fair because it was a recreational league, not competitive. But the other coach decided to field all 5. Okay, whatever. I huddled my 3 and we strategized. The forward decided to position in the field near their goal and concentrate on dribbling and taking shots. The midfielder would hover in the middle and work on intercepting and passing. Thaddeus was responsible for the back half of the field and would stay at the goal and stop anything coming his way.

Did I mention it was literally 100 degrees? I mean for real, it was 100 degrees. Did I mention that they fielded all 5 players? Throughout the entire game, they fielded all 5 players.

Well, it quickly became clear that their players were relying on someone else to get the job done. They had a ball hog and Thaddeus quickly learned to position himself for any shot while the midfielder concentrated on intercepting that player. Some of their kids were literally just standing there while our team was crossing the field constantly.

We got to halftime and thanks to our teamwork, Sabertooth Pack had pulled ahead 3-2. Our team was exhausted but energized. 3 players against 5 and we were ahead!! I loaded them up with orange slices and Gatorade and sought their input for the second half. I asked them what they thought was going well and one of the kids immediately nailed it–“we’re working as a team,” he said. “They’re just kicking the ball around.”

Still, these kids were TIRED. Exhausted. I got them all resting. We talked about fielding two of them and rotating one to take a rest throughout the half. All 3 kids insisted on playing the full game. At that point we’d been joined by Fancy Feet’s dad and our power kicker and his mom to cheer us on. We hands-down had the best support crew.

When the halftime break was over, our team took the field. And man, did our kids fight HARD. The opposing team had figured out that maybe they should coordinate their efforts a little bit and started being more aggressive. They tied the score 3-3 and then pulled ahead 3-4. I called a time out to regroup. Our team had been running the entire field all morning. The opposing team finally seemed to have gotten their stuff together. We agreed that the forward would position himself at the goal, and that the midfielder and goalie would simply kick the ball to him to take every shot he could.

Our supporters were literally on their feet for the last few minutes. I was sweating buckets as I crossed the field up and down. They scored a point. We scored a point. They scored a point. We scored a point. The ball was everywhere. Shot after shot after shot. Our kids ran the field up and down and back again.

And then the ref blew the whistle. And…

We lost.

6-5.

And yet?

There was so much cheering. There was cheering from our exhausted players. There was cheering from our parents and grandparents. There was cheering from the opposing team’s parents. There was cheering from the league staff. We had other parents from other teams slapping our kids on their backs. Our power kicker jumped on his teammates despite his strep throat.

We had won second place. We’d done it. 3 players against 5 in 100-degree heat for a full hour, and we lost by a single point.

The winning team was subdued. We thanked them, of course, with sportsmanship, but honestly I have never seen a more depressed 1st place team.

Meanwhile our kids headed over to our medal ceremony. Not gonna lie, I cried handing out our 2nd place awards. Each kid giving each other high fives fingering their medals and wolfing down their free bag of M&Ms. It was amazing.

I feel like there’s a lesson here. Maybe I’m too stressed out or anxious to see it, but there’s definitely a lesson. I’m so glad I got to experience this. I’m so glad that later Thaddeus said “Remember when you were my soccer coach and we got second place?”

Maybe you need a boost. Maybe you need an ill player on the sidelines cheering you on. Maybe you need to run the field up and down, over and over again. Maybe you need those one or two people who will fight with you to the end.

Maybe you need the triumph of a second place victory.

Take that medal and hold it close to your heart. Let’s all get through this together.