A Little Deodorant Should Do the Trick

As previously mentioned in my JV Annihilation post, (I know, that was a few months ago) my soccer team experienced some pretty interesting matches during the season.  One particular away game was against Union.  The field was out in the middle of nowhere, but still located near the mountains.  It was sunny, but not too hot, although it was a long bus ride.  JV was unloading and Varsity was warming up, when I heard the first cries of “Ok, guys, don’t sit on the ground; some bugs just bit me!” and “Ah, I think I just got bit by a mosquito!”  Soon, we were all being “attacked” by pesky blood suckers.  I, for one, do NOT like mosquitos; the bites can swell up to the size of a golf ball on me.

No one was expecting this; the only time I remember Utah being buggy was when I went camping in the summer.  Of course, no one had any bug spray, but we had to do something.  Then one girl recommended using deodorant (yep, that’s right, the stuff you apply to your armpits).  Apparently, if applied on a mosquito bite, it would suspend the itching sensation for a little while.  Uh, come again?  At first I was skeptical, but hey, it’s not like I had another idea.  I tried it out, rubbing it on a growing bump on my left hand.  It didn’t completely work for me (wearing off after around ten minutes), though it was better than nothing.  So all through both games I was trying to resist the itch on my left elbow or my right knee.  Not too fun while one is trying to do homework.  However, my other teammates were happy with the results, so I guess it was just me.

Thankfully, Varsity won their game and JV was up 8-0 at half time.  According to the Mercy Rule, if a team is winning by eight goals ten minutes into the second half, the game will end early.  Ten minutes into the second half, we were up 9-0 so the referee blew the final whistle.

We packed up, loaded the bus,  ate some pizza (delivered during our game) and settled in for a two hour ride.  Of course, most of the time, my numerous bug bites were not very pleasant.  When I got home I put some anti-itch gel on, much to my relief.  Much to my dismay, those darn mosquito bites lasted for a week.  Not cool.

Well, here is just a comical soccer meme.  It's not really related to the post, but I thought you might like it. :)

Image courtesy of Meme Center

One Down, Three to Go

One of Varsity's seniors
against a Morgan defender.
Image courtesy of:
 Christopher Reeves/The Park Record

High school soccer season has come to an end, and Junior Varsity (JV) went undefeated!  Our last two games were not exactly our best (one was a tie), but we didn’t lose.  Also, a shout out to my bud, Emily, who scored a goal on her first time playing with JV!


Though Region is done, playoffs for State Championship have begun (click here for the bracket we're in).  Five JV players, including me, were asked to play up with Varsity during playoffs!  Before I go back to club soccer, I get two more weeks of the high school experience!  I am super excited!  During our first playoffs game, I got to play for ten minutes!  I know that doesn’t sound very impressive, but when you’re at the bottom of the pack, you take what you can get.  I played okay, though I wasn’t extremely happy with myself.  Anyway, we won that game 8-0, so now we move on to quarter finals.  Our next game is a two hour bus ride one away, but Coach has planned it so we can stop for restroom breaks and still have an hour to warm up before the game.

Varsity celebrating.
Image courtesy of:
The Salt Lake Tribune

Practicing with Varsity is also a nerve-racking experience.  Even though it’s not a game and there aren’t other people watching me, I still get timid, fearful and feel like everything I do isn’t quite good enough.  I am always looking for a way to prove myself, but alas, those moments are rare.  Whenever we scrimmage, my first touch is either bad or too slow and I can’t seem to position myself in the right places (the formation is different from JV).  One thing I work on with Varsity is quicker, firmer passes.

Fortunately, I’m decent at penalty kicks (PK) and my fitness is average.  At the end of every practice, the top ten PK shooters practice their shots.  One practice, the rest of us or non-PK takers had the opportunity to shoot as well.  I am proud to say that I have not yet missed a practice PK.  Although, there was the time I missed a PK in an actual game...I haven’t taken a game one since.  But that’s what practice is for, right?  Building up one’s skill and confidence.  On the topic of conditioning, we had a fitness practice the other day (no soccer balls, all running) where we did some exhausting relay sprints in groups of three.  My group, consisting of the youngest players on Varsity, came in the top three every time. :)

Junior Varsity Annihilation (After a Rocky Start)

In my high school soccer, there are two soccer seasons: region and pre-region (season and pre-season).  Tryouts were held at the beginning of August; pre-season started on the 13.  But that’s beside the point.  (By the way, I made Junior Varsity.  Woohoo!)  In my opinion, we had a rockin’ team.  I knew some of the older girls and was extremely excited and honored to be playing with them.  Unfortunately, our “great skill” didn’t get across to anyone looking at our game results.

We lost our first three games.

One of them was against Judge Memorial.  It was an away game.  We played on artificial grass.  In the middle of August.  At 5:00 in the afternoon.  Now I know that Utah is not as hot as, for instance, Texas or Florida, but that turf had been baking in the unobstructed sunlight all day.  The temperature was above 90ºF and the field was close to 110 degrees.

In short, it was scorching like the heat from a thousand suns (well, maybe not that hot).

It was awful.

And we lost.

Not our best day.  The next five games weren’t great either.  Sure, we won some, we tied some, though in the end, we didn’t get the results we wanted.In all, we did not look very impressive.  We were in a grim mood; our pre-season results were 2-1-5.  We kept on practicing, preparing for region games.

On the bright side, Varsity did pretty well in pre-season.  They finished pre-region with a 2-5-1 record and are currently 6-6-2 (both seasons).  In region, they have only lost and tied one game (both against Juan Diego) out of six.  No big deal.  If they win the rest of their games, they’ll be headed to playoffs and hopefully on to the State Championship.

Me
Image courtesy of Mel Oltra & MaxPreps

Then finally something clicked.  We started winning game after game.  Our passing was good, our shots went in just enough times to get us ahead, and we were all in high spirits.  We even gained a few memorable moments along the way (but those are stories for another day).  However, the best part is WE (JV) ARE UNDEFEATED in region!  No losses, no ties.  Not to mention, the past three games have been shut-outs!  Now, we won’t get anything if we go undefeated throughout the rest of the season, but there are other rewards.
1) it would sure feel nice compared to our horrific start
2) it would tremendously boost our self confidence
3) we would get bragging rights ;)

There are only two games remaining; JV plans to go out with a bang.  So wish us luck!

Me against a Juan Diego defender
Image courtesy of Mel Oltra & MaxPreps