G4+Group+6

__ Sporting Strength __

“Audrey!” yelled her coach, leaning into the girls' locker room. “Hurry up and get the water jug to the field! The boys are thirsty!” “Ok, Coach!” Audrey sighed and threw her shin guards in her bag as her soccer coach slammed the heavy locker room door shut. It was a little disturbing how freely her coach let himself into the locker room, as if it were the boys' locker room. As she shouldered her bag, she lamented how she was becoming more like a team manager than a player on the school team. Audrey crossed the hallway of the gymnasium to the trainer’s room, glancing at the workout posters on the wall, and picked up a large orange jug with “Gatorade” emblazoned on the front. She hefted the jug and staggered under its weight. Hunch-backed with the effort, she trundled through the door, only to walk straight into something very large, which she gently bounced off of. She staggered backwards and dropped the container, which wobbled before righting itself on the floor. She found herself being glared down at by the school trainer, Mr. Calsinki. “Watch where you're going, missy! AND WHAT DO YOU THINK YOURE DOING?” the large man demanded angrily, in his haughty voice. “Sorry, I was just getting a water jug for my soccer te…” Her voice trailed off under his wilting stare. “Not that, you ignorant girl! Those cleats!” Audrey looked down and realized she had her cleats on. “Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. Calsinki, I’ll take them off.” She bent down, face red and hands sweaty, and started to fumble with her laces. “Do you have any idea how much these tile floors cost to maintain?” he insisted as she took off the cleats. “How could they let such a clueless girl onto the school's soccer team?” he asked more to himself, than to her. Audrey’s face burned, and her heart stung, but she held her tongue, placed her cleats on the jug and side-shuffled away. As she entered the hallway, she passed an older boy wearing metal cleats, the clacking noise of his footsteps echoing through the halls. “Oh, he’s gonna get it.” she thought viciously, waiting for the outburst of yelling that was sure to come. Instead, however, she heard a different tone floating down the hallway: “Come on in, John. Have some Gatorade. You really had a great play against St. George's in the game yesterday.” “Thank you, Mr. Calsinki. I think I will,” came the voice of the boy. Audrey started hauling the jug along ferociously with the energy of the burning unfairness. She pushed past the few people roaming the halls with unnecessary violence and burst out the double doors toward the soccer field, positive that her hair was going to frizz up because of the steam that was sure to be coming out of her ears. She stomped her way past a row of pine trees to the field, where the boys were just starting their "1,2,3 GO TIGERS!" chant, slammed the jug down on the bench, marched to the far side of the field, and plopped down on the other bench. Audrey stared sadly at her cleats that she had bought last summer back when she lived in Charleston. She had had to move here, a small, gloomy town called Pikesville, in Tennessee. Pikesville was so small that her school only had a boys' soccer team, which Audrey was now forced to play on. Actually, she wasn't quite forced to play on it, because she definitely wanted to play soccer, but she was forced because otherwise she wouldn't be able to play soccer at all. Her grandfather had taught her how to play when she was three, and it had been her passion ever since. He had played on the team for Argentina when he was in his 20's, but he had died three years ago. Audrey wanted to make him proud. In one of his final days, he had told her,//"I hope you'll always think of me when you play soccer, Audrey." // "AUDREY!" Audrey resurfaced to the present. "AUDREY, PUT THOSE CLEATS ON AND WATCH THE GAME! THE BOYS ARE STARTING TO PLAY!" the coach yelled at her furiously from across the field. Audrey frantically scrambled to knot her laces, and looked up, just as the ref blew his whistle to start the game. "Way to go, //Audrey, //" smirked Ryan as he took off after the ball. Audrey's blood boiled. //I hate how all the guys treat me-- like I'm stupid-- and won't pass to me. I've never even gotten to play in a real game. I'm just as good at soccer as any of them, anyway. It’s just because I'm a //**//girl //**. //And //**//girls //**// are weaker and //**//delicate //**. She had heard the guys on her team grumble about this before, plenty of times. Audrey looked up and started to watch the game intently, studying every move of every player. Jack was passing the ball to Mark. One of the defenders from the Strikers was charging at Mark’s back like a linebacker. Audrey knew exactly what was coming, but by the time she shouted, “Look out, Mark!” it was too late. Mark had been body checked by the Strikers' defender before the ball had even gotten to his feet. Audrey stared at the ground. She couldn’t watch Coach carry Mark off the field while he wiped the blood away from his nose. An instant fear shot through her entire body as she realized that Alex was out sick, Collin was in detention, and //she // was the only substitute. //She // was going in the game. She tried as hard as she could not to picture herself being carried off the field in Coach’s arms, howling in pain, just as Mark was, on the side of the field. “Audrey! Can you do this?” hollered Coach, in a slightly panicky voice, still on the other side of the field. “I’m ready to go,” Audrey said nervously, to herself more than anyone else. The second Audrey stepped onto the field, she knew she was in trouble. The Strikers played rough, probably rougher than she had ever seen soccer before. It reminded herof the game her dad took her to last year, in Charleston. //It was a professional game, in a large stadium. The rain crashed down, like cold buckets of water falling over their heads in through the darkness. The stadium lights barely filtered through the torrents of water pouring down on them to reveal a large, green field with 22 soaking men running and sliding through the miserable mud puddles. Men were being body-checked and slide-tackled right and left, and they were slipping and falling in the slippery mud. Hewitt passed Convoy the ball, but before he could trap it, a man slide-tackled Convoy from behind. Convoy, caught when he wasn't expecting it, tried to react, but his hands weren't fast enough to break his fall. He smashed face-first into the ground, and his shattered nose spurted glistening ruby blood everywhere. // “Oomph!” Audrey grunted as she fell to the ground. She had to pay more attention in a game like this. The player that pushed her over smirked as she looked up at him and then at the ref. The ref was facing the other direction. Clearly he hadn’t seen Audrey get pushed to the ground. Or else, more likely, he didn’t even care. Audrey knew she had to be tough to stay in the game with these guys. She thought back to last year. It was the league finals of her team in Charleston. She was on a girls' team then. The team they played, the Blaze, had some of the biggest girls Audrey had ever seen. They pushed her around then, but she fought back. She just had to play like that and she would be fine. The next thing Audrey knew, she had the ball at her feet. She had stolen it from one of the Strikers’ midfielders, and started dribbling up the field. One by one, she dribbled past the defenders until she was in the goal box. It was just her and the goalie now. She pulled her right leg back, ready to take a shot. It was perfect. She had the entire goal to work with. All she had to do was place the ball in the corner and the game would be tied 1-1. It was her chance. The crowd would go wild. Audrey fell to the ground with another grunt. She had been slide-tackled by the biggest of the Strikers’ defenders, from behind. Audrey heard the ref’s whistle blow, calling a foul. It was a foul in the goal box, which meant someone on her team had to take a penalty kick on the goal. She tried to get up from the ground so she could move out of the way so one of the boys could take the kick. She felt a sharp pain in her knee as she tried stand and she fell back to the ground. She could tell her knee was bruised and starting to swell, but she knew if she wanted any respect from her teammates or her coach, she would have to be strong, and get up. “Audrey, get up! You’re taking the shot!” Coach yelled from the sidelines. “I’m giving you a chance here! Don’t blow it!” Audrey stood up slowly, surprised, but very pleased. This was her big chance. It was her chance to prove herself worthy of being on the team. Her heart pounded nervously as she took the ball from the referee and placed it in the spot he was pointing to. She took three steps backwards and stared at the goal. She focused in on the bottom left corner of the goal. It was the perfect spot to place the ball. The ref blew the whistle, indicating for her to shoot the ball. The crowd roared. Audrey had placed the ball perfectly in the left corner of the net. The game was tied 1-1 and her team was going crazy. “Come on guys, we’re in this now! We can take the lead!” screamed the captain of Audrey’s team. The team was pumped up now. They were ready to fight back and be just as physical as the Strikers. Audrey didn’t know what came over her. She was ready to fight, too. As the forward passed the ball back to the defense in the kickoff, she sprinted up the field and immediately stole the ball from the defender. He tried to slide-tackle her, but she saw it coming and raced out of the way, leaving him slide-tackling the spot she had been seconds before. She passed the ball to Ryan, the forward, who sent the ball to Jack. Audrey ran up the field, and she was wide open now. She called for the ball as loudly as she could. Jack obviously heard, but decided to ignore her. He took a weak shot from far out, which rolled right to the goalie. “Jack, pass the ball! Audrey was wide open!” screamed Coach. Finally, she was getting some respect, Audrey thought. The goalie punted the ball to his teammate, who quickly received the ball and sprinted towards a Tigers defender. He ran past two of the defenders and prepared to take a shot. Audrey watched as her team’s goalie charged the player dribbling the ball. The player touched the ball past the goalie and had a wide open goal. It was 1-2 now, and the Tigers didn’t have long to catch back up. Audrey was furious now. She wanted to win more than anything. The center midfielder passed her the ball. She took the ball up the sideline and crossed it into the box. The goalie jumped up and tried to grab the ball, but it slipped out of his hands and went out of bounds. Corner kick. “Audrey! I want you to take it!” Audrey had never really taken corner kicks. That was always Cindy’s job on her old team. She dribbled the ball to the corner flag. She placed the ball next to the flag and backed up three paces. She looked up and saw Jack wide open in the middle of the goal box. She ran at the ball, raising her arm to signal that she was going to kick it, and crossed it perfectly in front of the goal, flying through the air, straight to Jack. He easily headed the ball past the goalie’s hands and into the goal. 2-2! The game was tied again. The other team took the kick-off, and Mark tried to steal the ball from the offender, but he pushed past him, pulled a fake on Ryan, who was sent sprawling in the other direction, and crossed it to his teammate positioned right in front of the goal. The goalie, James, who had been facing the other offender, tried to turn, but the other player slipped the ball in behind him. Audrey's heart sank, and she stood there, furious at what they had just let happen. The ref blew his whistle to signify a goal. Audrey took the kickoff, and they tried to fight back and get another goal, but seconds later the ref took a final blow on his whistle. The game was over. Audrey started to jog back to the sidelines, but then realized that the rest of the team was slouching and dragging their feet as they went. She quickly slowed her pace, not wanting to go any faster than anyone else. As she approached the sideline, Coach tried to cheer up the team with false confidence. “Good try, guys. You played your hearts out, out there,” he began, but a look at their disappointed faces quickly silenced him. Audrey tried to keep an indifferent outer appearance, but inside she was jumping for joy. She was overjoyed at finally being able to do something for the team. Still, she felt a little upset that she hadn’t been able to drag the team to victory. “I could have done it if I’d played the whole game,” she thought to herself as she slapped hands with the other team. She resolved to make sure to get Coach to give her more playing time. Audrey traipsed over to the bench and unfastened her cleats and shin guards. After rummaging around in her equipment bag, she found her sneakers and pulled them on. As she was about to get up and leave, a shadow fell over her. She looked up and saw her coach looking at her, a peculiar look on his face. “Uh, hey Coach” Audrey stammered out, disconcerted by the lopsided mouth and half squinting eyes of her coach. A small silence followed. “Audrey,” he started after a breath, “I want you to know I’m proud of what you did today and I… I’m sorry about ignoring you during the season.” He looked a little ashamed. Audrey was surprised; her coach was always a hard man, training them, but he was never really their friend, and he never showed much emotion. Audrey wasn’t sure what to say. “Uh, thank- thanks Coach. It’s OK.” was the best she could come up with. “OK. See you at practice tomorrow,” he said, regaining his composure and walking off.

Audrey smiled slightly as she collected her shin guards and socks and walked towards the gym. She might actually be looking forward to practice tomorrow.