Soccer Game ONE

Our new Stake has a Co-Ed Soccer Team. You can not even imagine my excitement after hearing this news! REALLY? We did move to the right area! The coach recruited me after I gave my talk in Sacrament Meeting stating that one of my hobbies was soccer. The coach is also our Home Teacher, so he would have found out sooner or later.

I made sure to tell him that I played 10 years ago in High School, and I have had two kids since and am VERY out of shape. It was funny because he announced that to the team right before the beginning of the game. It was a fun way for everyone to get to know us a littl more. We are still new to the ward, and we feel like we are meeting people every week. It was nice to see some of the ward members outside of church.

I got to start as Center Forward. This is the same position I played in High School. The first half was fun, we were just getting into the groove of the game, and the score was tied 1-1. I am realizing that I need to run a little more when I am running in the mornings because I am getting quite winded. (mental note for Melissa) Now this is "Church Ball" so you are going to assume that it is going to be a nice friendly game... NOT the case. I should have guessed it would go sour, but I always hope that people can bring their A game to the plate...

The other teams true colors began to show right before the second half. They had two girls playing defense that I heard after the game had played soccer in High School and College. They seemed to be nice girls, but ONE of them turned out to be a BULLY. I guess some people think it is ok to try to play the game and make all the calls. We did not have real Ref's there for the game, so this other nice lady was being the ref. Her husband was suposed to me in charge and was not avaliable for some reason, so she stepped in. Well... she had NO clue what was going on in the game. I am not sure if she was not paying attention, or if she really did not know the rules to the game. EVERY time the ball went out she called it for the other team... because the ONE girl was "making her calls" ... When it was actully suposed to be our ball, I would speak up, but besides that I did not want to look like a "know it all" even though I have played and I know how to call a game too...

Anyways... fastforward to almost the end of the second half... it was after a corner kick I believe and we had cleared the ball. Matt was running to clear the ball even more forward and I was running maybe a yard to his side and 10 feet ahead of him. That ONE girl is coming from behind Matt heading towards the ball too. Matt goes to kick the ball, and ends up kicking her foot. Matt backs off putting his hands in the air like "My Bad" and the girl swings her hand around and punches Matt in the chest. My jaw dropped! I am standing there like did I just see this girl HIT my husband? And it was not like she was "flailing" and hit him on accident... that girl WOUND up and SOCKED my husband. I started yelling at the ref that the ONE girl needs to be out of the game. So she kicks both of them out to "cool off" Matt at this point is like "What did I do?" The ONE girl is still running her mouth, if I was 50 lbs. heavier and back in High School I would have been running my mouth RIGHT back at her. I am glad I have grown up a little bit from my angry High School Days!

We lost the game which made it even worse because I am thinking now this girls feels even more justified about hitting another person. They had two of our guyes playing for their team... they REALLY helped them out. After the game I STILL hear this girl talking about how she was just running and his chest must have gotten in the way. We'll let me put it this way; I was RIGHT THERE, I saw the whole thing unfold. It was like I had a front row seat to the madness. And because Matt is my husband, one might think I would be a little biased. But if I have to go into tell the Stake President about this... I am not going to LIE! This girl has been a bully the past years they have played soccer. We have heard this from MULTIPUL people out of different wards. Our coach is going to escilate this, and wants this girl to know that it is NOT ok what she did.

Matt told me today that he understands her getting upset and all, but she did not apologize after hitting him. We all do things in the heat of the moment that we wish we could take back, but you have to admit... grown people don't HIT other people. And if your first reaction when you get angry is to HIT someone... YOU have issues. We learn not to hit as children. I am working on that with my 2 year old. This lady looks to be in her 30's and is obviously still learning this lesson.

To make this story even better... our daughter was playing in the sand with her daughter... haha. And they were having a GREAT old time, I love how kids are able to get along!

What really scares me is that she has kids... does she hit her kids when they make her angry? I have heard she is a great mother, and a nice person off the field and I hope this is the truth. But being a nice person off the field does not make it ok for you to HIT another person ON the field.

Anyways... we are going to continue to play for our ward soccer team. Matt has a sour taste in his mouth about the whole situation because it's like she can get away with whatever she wants. Someone needs to call this girl out, because she has proved from past years to all our team members that she is just a bully. All our team members came up to Matt after the game and apologized that it went down that way. We hope someone can get through to this girl that it is unacceptable to act the way she did. We'll keep you posted! :)

Lets hope next week is better than the first week!