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Saturday, November 8
A season to Remember
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Oh what a season this was!
I never thought much of statements such as: “It’s not if you win or lose, but how you play the game.” or “ this is a character building season.” Well it so happens that Kaieteur soccer team proved that these are not just hollow statements, as they played each and every game to the last whistle, never giving up going for the win.
Kaieteur found itself with 13 players at the beginning of Fall 2003; everyone was nervous, not that the girls could not rise to the challenge, but injuries and various viruses or illness. Our preseason tournament was bitter sweat, with two guest players; we won the Columbia Summer Classic – sweat, but the cost? A badly, twisted ankle. Then there were 12.
We opened the season against two of our friendly rivals with both games ending in a tie. Then the worst fear came true, our goalie kicked the goalpost during practice and then there were 11 -forcing one of the better field players in the goal. Game three found them facing what seemed like the biggest U12 team ever, they were held to a 1-1 score at halftime, then in the middle of the second half it happened, no more gas. This was the same scenario in the next game against the eventual division runner up. By game # 5 we were back to a healthy 12 and in control of the game until about 6 minutes to the end, two careless mistakes by a tired group of girls cost us the game this ending saw more girls than usual in tears.
With a full squad of 13, we met the eventual division champs and had our best game after giving up an early goal, we surprised everyone and fought to the end giving up one more goal in the last 30 seconds as we were in an all out attack.
The next day, they were up for the game and at the end of the first half they were down by a goal. Early in the second half they gave up another goal, this time in the last quarter of the game rather than run out of gas, they surged and scored.
After a dogfight for ten solid minutes they once again came away with a loss both the game and a re-injured ankle. The second to last game we hit bottom, we had girls were coughing, a reluctant goalie and our top field player struggling after a week in bed with fevers. Kaieteur scored first, was cautiously optimistic, and stayed competitive through the half. Then our goalie was out injured and the recovering player head a fever and was pulled and to our amazement, the remaining ten girls never gave up 4 goals down and they fought to the end.
At the beginning of the final game the coach brought out the plaque that was won at the tournament, which seemed like decades ago and showed them the word champions, now I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but the game ended in a victorious tie. An early obvious offside goal proved to be the beginning of a long day with refereeing like I have never seen before, even though it cost us a goal, he was consistent, bad calls all around. But the remarkable thing in this game was that a team of about 16 or 18 strong ran out of gas against our determined 12.
So it was indeed a season to remember, as I will never forget this season and these courageous 13 girls.
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