Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A triumphant return to league play

Sunday evening, for the first time in a handful of years I ventured outside my small social circle and comfort zone to join a soccer league. I was nervous as hell to be honest. But I had already made the committment which includes a $55 entry fee, which is no small chunk of change for myself, and I didn't want anyone else to need to pick up my fees, so I had to plunge in.

I have kicked around in the past few years sure, and been involved in a pickup game here and there with a few players down at the old northside fields down at 16th Street. But this was different. This was an actual league, with actual score being kept and actual results. To make matters more interesting I knew only two other members of 3 other members of my team. One was my roomate, and one other was gonna miss this weeks game due to family committments. So, this was gonna be a first impression I made on some people.

There was first day of school type anxiety for me all day leading up to the game. Add to that I would look like the coolest cat on the field with my 1995 edition RecSpecs sports goggles. My roomate and I joked around about how many muscles we were gonna pull. And if either of us had directions to the "ego hospital" for after the game. Before the game I thought I may be fit enough to run throughout the game, but was overly concerned about that pesky skill component.

When I got to the complex I noticed the teams name we were up against was Strikers. And that this was a team made up entirely of free agents. Guys that were serious enough to enter themsleves in a league cause they wanted to play, without even knowing any of their teamates. They were just shuffled together. For some reason, this made me think all their skill levels were well beyond mine. It made me view them as very serious. Our team name is Eagles which is destiny, I suppose. Perhaps we will get into the championship game and choke.

A few minutes into the game I realized I grossly overestimated my own fitness level. Luckily, I may have overstimated that of the other team as well. When recieving the ball it was a relief to find that I actually had a second or two to look up and see where teamates were without a defender immediately on me. Then defender from the opponents told me to tell him if his elbows got too high in defending me. This wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. After twn minutes we were up 4-0 and I already had a goal, and another shot which the goalkeeper deflected and my roomated pounced on the rebound for a goal. I'll credit myself with an assist there. :)

In the end the Eagles were victorious by the score of somewhere around 9 or 10-1. Yours truly finished the game with 2 goals and two assists. It wasn't nearly as traumatic an experience as I thought it would be. Granted I have a ways to go to get to match fitness. And granted, I took some ill advised shots when I may have been better off passing off to a teamate, but that has always been a weakness of mine. Overall, it was just great to get out there and be playing again. And now instead of joking around with dread about next week, I am just honestly looking forward to it.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

geez, i remember when i played with tim and we went up against some 40 year old off-season brazilians or some shit. that sucked so bad. i wish i had your intitial experience. let me redeem myself and get on that team! i don't suck that much!

-spitz

scot said...

you're in, Spitz!

E-A-G-L-E-S

EAGLES!!!!

Anonymous said...

ka-caw! ka-caw!!

7-2 us in the upcoming defeat over indy united.

-spitz

Anonymous said...

to all,

Being Scot's Mom and probably the biggest fan he had playing soccer I am offering up the following suggestion: Please make sure all know where the nearest hospital is/have Scot's insurance card handy and remember we live all the way in NJ ----- Scot will obtain a break of something this season.(Finger/hand /we hope not his head) he always does.Wish I could be there just to scream "Shoot the Ball!!!!!"
MOM Sedley
PS God Bless the refs of the game he plays in!!!

scot said...

i already got rugburn on my damn knee and it won't scab over. it ruined my runs yesterday and this morning. hopefully its better by tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

mrs. sedley. i'll look out for him. by that i don't mean i'll try and protect him, but rather i'll look out for him so that i don't trip over him during the game when he falls and breaks his ankle. no seriously, as dorsey and i as his wingmen, what could go wrong?!

-spitz

scot said...

come on spitz...this coming from the guy who didn't give me any suntan lotion last time we wer at ocean city in an attempt to sabotage my mini golf game? It didn't work, I got the scorecards to prove it!

Anonymous said...

fortunately, there are no scorecards in indoor soccer for you to swipe and change the scores on in the middle of the night. and this is INDOOR soccer. are you going to blame the bright lights for your sunburn this time?

sheesh dude, we haven't even started our game and your sabotaging our team solidarity. i'm crushed.

scot said...

low blow on the solidarity, you already broke my ankle! :)

Mike said...

Nine comments already? I was hoping it was nine other people looking to start a team. Even I know two people.

Where are you playing? Indoor?

scot said...

Jeez mike, if this blog even had nine readers, I'd be shocked. yeah, indoor. up at the sportszone up on 66 and coffman here in indy. Fees aren't so bad, we are looking at about $50 a person.

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