Football Fanatics

Elisabeth Brokaw

With two bags of balls slung over shoulders, a big jug of water lugged by two more arms, and a stool carried by a fifth hand, a group of seventeen cleat-clad girls and an amazing coach prepare for football/soccer practice. Four school days a week, the Dalat Varsity girls’ team loads into PE vans or scale the stairs to Upper Field for practice, and they meet on the fifth day for captain-led conditioning.

Some might just roll their eyes at this dedicated crew, and others might see a bunch of girls who are crazy in the head (after performing too many “headers”); but hopefully all see a loving lot of sweet girls who are devoted and hard-working, because that’s who they really are. The soccer girls might be a batch of silly high schoolers who play a sport that the rest of the island seems to think isn’t a girls’ sport, but does that stop them? Absolutely not.

It takes a lot of brainpower to focus on giving one thing with absolute energy for an hour or two straight, day after day. But these ladies do just that and come away with smiling faces and good attitudes, even if they are drenched in sweat.

A big factor behind this is the companionship built by playing a team sport with peers. Students who participate in sports, and other extracurricular activities, have the opportunity to build friendships that cross the boundaries tacitly set by the grade they are in. It doesn’t have to be football, but football certainly is special in its own way, just like every other extracurricular.

“I love the soccer season,” declares Melynn Kendrick (10) in reflection, “because you get to experience so much with all of your newfound best friends.”

Likewise, Mackenzie Jordan (12) states, “Soccer has been a great experience; I have loved the chance to get to know girls from so many different grades. It's like having sixteen sisters.” Playing on a team helps to diminish division, to forge familial feelings, and to make memories. Jordan continues, saying, “This sport has also taught me to push myself in ways that I never have or thought I could.”

 In this way, football is a chance for players to learn about themselves. In practice and in games, they learn where their physical strengths and weaknesses are; but players also build mental strength when they play games. Actual matches are times to test both their level of skill and their level of heart.

The players have been stretched this season, playing in tournaments at ISKL and POWIIS, along with a few more friendly matches against teams like Uplands and Dalat’s own JV boys’ team. Overall the team has done well, and they have more to look forward to during second semester, when they will travel as a family to the ACSC Girls’ Soccer tournament in Guam.

So—football. It’s more than just a sport in which people get sweaty and kick a spherical object around, hoping to get it past the goalie and into the net. It’s an activity of companionship that builds lasting memories and strong character. What more could anyone ask for?

Danielle Combrink (10) explains, “I didn't play soccer last year, but I definitely do not regret joining it this year.” And her teammates would agree with her reasoning that “soccer practice is a perfect blend of fun, joking around with my friends, and hard work, pushing myself with drills and conditioning. I've gotten to know a lot of girls so much better, which I really think is so important, because for me, sports is one of my main ways to get to know the older girls better.”

Ask any one of those crazy soccer girls how she feels about her sport, and her answer would definitely match Combrink’s: “I've loved every second of it.”