“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” That quote is commonly attributed to Mark Twain. Although there’s no evidence that he actually said it, had he been at 2 pm on the NA JV soccer field on Saturday, October 26^th, he would have changed his mind: “The coldest winter I ever spent was that bright afternoon under the sun at Newark Academy,” might have been his revision. It was freezing! Colder than the Cold War! And it was Homecoming!

 

The mood around the school was festive, the players were ready to bid farewell to the season with a home game… and the opposing team showed up with 23 players. I pointed to them that “23” was our lucky number. After all, we had defeated a team with the same number of players just one week before. But just as there are no two snowflakes that are equal, there are no two games that can be replicated. And this was no exception.

 

We started the season with 14 players on the roster. And then Isabelle was promoted to Varsity. Still, due to our team’s injuries, she joined us for the last game of the season, and we welcomed our rivals with one substitute.

Willa was not able to play, so we had to reinvent our entire defense and midfield. Sam, a solid defensive center mid, volunteered to be the back-up goalie. Catherine took the left back. Megha played in the midfield, and when on the last minute of the first half Olivia’s injured knee came back to prevent her from running, we had to borrow freshman Varsity player Paige Kolek (thanks, Paige!) for the second half, in order to avoid finishing the game with that uneven equation we had face before: 10 NA players vs. 11 + subs on the other end of the field. This means that, once again, we were forced to reinvent the puzzle that it had taken us an entire season to put together.

 

The great “advantage” of having a small roster is that all the team members get a lot of playtime. The disadvantage is, of course, that they have no breaks! While our opponents were sending three substitutes at a time, our players had to run for what must have seemed to them like an eternity plus seven days. It certainly seemed forever to me! And they ran, and ran, and ran, and ran… But that was no antidote against a group of players with good skills and a legion of substitutes to back them up.

 

This was a good game. And we lost 0-3. We congratulated our guests, and bid farewell to the season, hoping that next year we will have more players, more fun, and fewer injuries!

 

Go, NAGS!  

 

Your proud Coach R