Winners and Losers

I played soccer in college. We weren't hugely successful but it was a lot of fun; really one of the highlights of my time in school.

One of the games we played definitely went down in our season history. Torrential rain had created a sticky mud bath and our shoes were magically velcroed to what little grass was still attached to the field. After watching the ball hit the back of our net a number of times our coach came so unglued that he called a timeout. Bottom line: if we didn't get our heads on the next ball the consequences would be so dire that we didn't even want to think about it.

I was sufficiently motivated.

Somehow, standing all of 5'2", I managed to get my head on the ball that came flying towards the goal from a corner kick. It flew straight into our own net.

Coach quieted down after that (after all someone HAD gotten their head on the ball - just like he asked!) and we lost that game 10-1.

Sometimes the ball and head don't communicate that well.

credits: csmonitor.com

Another time we played St. Mary's College - the all female counterpart to Notre Dame. I'm not sure why they wanted to play us, who could believe they even knew we existed? Did they have a bad day and their coach thought they could use a pick me up? Did they want to test the theory of Mennonite Pacifism? Were they "poor winners" and the coach thought they needed to learn how to handle success with grace and humility?

I guess they needed an easy warm up or something... Let's just say the result wasn't pretty - for our side anyway. 

Winners, but they didn't show any arrogance about it.
credits: espn.com

These two memories brought to you by the Chile vs. Brazil World Cup Game this afternoon... Sorry guys! Sometimes you play a good game, you don't even head it into your own goal, but you just can't get it done. At least the score wasn't 10-1!