Article December 14, 2015 Issue

Won it!

Billy Brooke

It was the day of our first soccer game of the season, and both the junior varsity and varsity teams were eagerly awaiting the end of school and the beginning of the game. I, on the other hand, was not. I’d been fine the night before. But today was a different story.

I’d woken up that morning with a sore throat, which I’d shrugged off, thinking it would be gone in a few hours. But by my sixth-hour class, I couldn’t move my neck without it hurting, and my throat was worse than before. While everyone else talked eagerly about the game, I found myself dreading it. The opposing team was one of our biggest rivals, and not all of our players were eligible to play, because they hadn’t gone to enough practices. This meant that we would be playing with less than the standard 11 players and would have no substitutes. Though I knew I should probably sit out the game, I also didn’t want to let my team down.

The unexpected cancellation of the game at the end of sixth hour solved my dilemma. Soccer players were instructed to go to regular practice instead. When I told my coach I wasn’t feeling well, she let me leave once I had helped put the nets on the goals.

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