Underdogs

Oh my gosh, it’s 11:30 already. This would be the one and only day that I dreaded leaving Ms. McGee’s algebra class and heading to lunch at 12:10.

“Hey, so are you ready for tonight?” my neighbor John whispered as I was trying to look busy with my math problems, all the while trying my best to keep at bay the giant birds that had been growing from the small butterflies in my stomach all week.

“What? Uh yeah, sure,” I replied to him. I didn’t want to talk about it; I was implying it as blatantly as possible.

“It’s gonna really suck if you guys get killed.” He smirked.“We won’t,” I said trying to convince myself and the jackass next to me. “I’ll look to you for comfort if we are embarrassed; you guys have plenty experience with slaughters in state games. Oh wait, when was the last time you guys made it to post-season?” That should shut him up; also improved my mood a tad.

“All right class; make sure that you are prepared for the test next week. And good luck to the girls in your soccer game tonight!”

We were going to need it, and everyone knew it. For the week prior to this game tonight, there had been nothing but posts on message boards and articles in the paper about how lucky we were playing in the State Championship Finals this year. We were a good team, skilled and fast. We were ranked every season and did well in post-season. But they said this year was a fluke. We had a new coach and lost some of our best seniors the season before, our team was young and inexperienced.

We were going to be playing Immaculate Conception. This team was more than good, it was a dynasty. They hadn’t lost a state championship in five years and hadn’t lost a single game in three! They were ranked third in the nation. How were we, a little team of mostly juniors and sophomores even to compete with a team of all seniors? Players that had been groomed for these kind of games their whole high school career? They were the “Blue Wolves.” I imagined monsters, freaks of nature disguised as high-school girls. The more I thought of the pressure, the closer I came to releasing it all over my desk.

As I headed to lunch, I sat down with my friends, some of which were on the team with me. How are they so relaxed right now? I fervently wished that time would stop and we wouldn’t have to play, as if that were really a possibility at all.

Rain! Rain! Pour! Hurricane!

“Lenehan, are you ok? You look green” asked my friend Megan. “Don’t be nervous,” she replied while slapping me on my back. “They don’t expect much from us, so there really isn’t any way to go but up with this team.”

“Unless they beat us by ten and two of those goals were scored by me.” I said gloomily, “Is that a rain cloud?”

“Shut up! It’s the tint on the window,” said Jaime. “Stop thinking about mistakes you might make. If you keep thinking like that it’s gonna happen. And if it does, I’ll kill you!”

I guess she was right. I just wanted it to be over with. The bell rang for third block. Only two more classes to go.

We were able to leave class an hour early at the end of the day. Everyone looked sick with nervousness, except those girls that always seemed to be able to pump up a room no matter what. We all piled into the bus and headed to the Kaene University Stadium, where we going to be playing underneath the lights later that night.

We pulled up to the stadium and we started our ritual of banging on the ceilings and windows of the bus, screaming and pumping up. The opposing team just stared and smirked. I felt like a man released into a ring of starved lions, fully aware and excited about the one-sidedness of the battle.

As the sun went down, the wind chill followed. Our skin stung with each whip of frozen air. Our muscles were clenched and tight. The only increase in that moment was the visibility of each exhale and the tension in the stadium. Girls were scattered all over the large field jumping, stretching, jogging, and bundling up; all in preparation for that first whistle of the next ninety minutes of our lives. The lights flickered on as our coach announced the starting lineup.

My name was called over the loud speaker at the beginning of the game and I felt a surge of excitement and adrenaline. I stepped out onto the massive, freshly painted field. A whirlwind of nerves and thoughts whipped through my brain, I kept saying “I am here, this is amazing. You’ll do great.” The stadium was full, with friends and family. There were coaches and players from different high schools and some college coaches. I was finally ready. The pressure is on, time to win a championship!

The game was long, and we were being worked. They were huge, aggressive and played well together. But we were good too. We were quick, sharp and tough. We weren’t going down without a fight. As we set up for the last play of the game it was still 0-0. My chest felt as though someone were sitting on top of it. I was winded, exhausted, freezing, sweaty, and anxious. The anxiety continued to mount as my teammate ran to place the ball at the corner of the field for a corner kick. The ball was lofted into the air and across the field and landed directly on the foot of our wingman. The net shook as the ball rocketed to the back of the goal.

Goal! We just scored a goal!

We ran fast at the girls who accomplished our slight lead. We jogged to back to our positions. Words of encouragement from both sides rang throughout the field, “It’s not over yet, stay strong! We got this!”

The game restarted. Thirty seconds later, the sound of two short whistles, then a long drawn out whistle.

It’s over! That’s it! We did it! We won!I couldn’t think over the roar of the crowd. I couldn’t see as I went crashing into a cluster of my teammates and felt the slight sting of tears in my eyes. The opposing team hung their heads. Some were successful at fighting the tears; some could not keep their composure. It felt amazing. We were champions.

They said we couldn’t do it, it was a fluke, but we did. The last weeks of summer spent in double sessions in the blazing heat, the loss of our weekends and Friday nights, afternoons playing in the snow- all of it brought us here. We received the ultimate reward. An enormous trophy. A nice new black coat. A silver ring with champion engraved on it. A big banner in our gym for everyone to see. A place in history, the team of Davids that brought down the Goliaths. I can’t wait to rub all over John’s face.