Soccer Practice #2

After library, we found our deflated ball, which is now even more flat, and found about 6 girls for practice. We have not met since the first time because of all sorts of scheduling conflicts (choir, dance practice, library) but I decided today we would meet come hell or high water. Which meant we had a small team. The girls took some shots on goal for a while but after about.. oh… 7 minutes, we got kicked off the field by the high school boys team. Now when I say high school boys, you probably imagine some 15-year-olds with attitude issues. But here, high school “boys” range in age from 13 to 27, and these were definitely the older classes. So despite the fact that they called me “miss” and asked politely, I was intimidated off the field.
This gave me an excuse to ask the boys (the younger ones I said were really good..) if we could play with them, so we took over the netball court and practiced there. (The netball court is just a cement court with two poles at either end that have a hoop on top.) It was amusing. The girls spent at least 50% of the time whining, usually about being hit with the ball or not getting it enough. They would hide whenever the ball came at them if it was off the ground at all, much to the amusement of the boys. And the whole thing was sporadically interrupted by terrified screams when the plastic snake one of the boys was carrying made an appearance. Hand balls were a frequent occurrence, as were dramatic fallings to the ground—not out of faking pain at being fouled, just pouting about something or laughing too hard to play. All in all, it was a success, mostly because I got such a kick out of the whole experience.