True by Karl Taro Greenfeld

Author:Karl Taro Greenfeld [Greenfeld, Karl Taro]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Sports, Coming of Age
ISBN: 9781542046831
Google: dlTaswEACAAJ
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Published: 2018-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

That night, at our first team meeting, Coach Tony came in and greeted all forty of us, ranging in ages from seventeen to thirty-five, the best female soccer players in the United States.

“Take a look around,” he ordered us. “Really take a look. You will be playing with, or against, each other for the rest of your football lives.”

What he meant was that we would be teammates here at residency, on the Under-17 or Under-23 teams, or on the national team, or we would be playing against each other, in college or in professional leagues. We had to get to know each other, to respect each other, to communicate with each other, to support each other, even though we were competing against each other. Not all of us would make it to the national team, but we’d all represent our country at some level, and that would most likely be with some of the girls in this room.

“The pitch is 8,250 square yards,” he said. “It’s too big to play on without talking to each other. Without knowing who’s in front of you, behind you, alongside you, without knowing where your sisters are. You’re each a link, girl to girl to girl.”

He said that we would go around the room, and we would all stand up and say our names and where we thought we could improve and what we wanted out of this residency. At first I expected forty platitudes, but very quickly, because Coach Tony had the veterans begin, it was clear that these women took this exercise seriously and were revealing truths about themselves to this room full of relative strangers. Some girls were specific: To keep focused and mentally in the game for all ninety-plus minutes. To make more first-time passes. To not shy away from contact. And others were more spiritual: To listen to teammates. To try to help teammates. To not criticize teammates. Even to be better moms while at residency.

The ’95 Women’s World Cup team, most of whom were here in this room, had lost to Norway in the semifinals, the camera crews capturing the US women bitching at each other on the pitch while the Norwegians celebrated with a conga line on their knees. The American women quickly blamed each other, before coming together in Atlanta to win the first-ever Olympic gold medal for women’s soccer.

When it was my turn, I said I wanted to play passionately but not violently. “I’ve had a problem with, I don’t know, some call ’em cheap shots, but I think I’m just passionate and sometimes I get too aggro. I need to learn to play without that negative emotion coming up.”

But as soon as I said it, I imagined my Under-17 teammates and the veterans sort of filing that fact away in their minds, that I could be rattled, could be made to lose my temper, that if it came down to it, if it was her against me for a spot, she might try to get me to lose my shit.

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