The day after, the whole middle school came out to see their classmates play soccer.
The day the entire season led up to.
The day players and participants feared and wanted.
The day soccer ends.
The day champions are made.
Saturday 7:30 A.M.
Players arrived to warm up and get into teams. The teams that would bring them to the top. Everyone was excited about the tournament’s start, but they had to do their warm-up before starting. The warm-up consisted of running back and forth with a few stretches. With this done, the coaches chose the captains and went to their respective fields to prepare.
This year’s team’s names were: The Endangered Species, The Tiger Kings, The Roar, The Cubs, and last but not least The Golden Tigers. The teams would cycle through playing and resting, with each half being 20 minutes with a 10-minute halftime. There would be three games before the lunch break and two after.
Armed with the schedule and thrilled to start, the referee blew the starting whistle, and the games were off.
The excitement through the first half of the tournament was almost tangible. When lunch came, the ES cafeteria was tumultuous with talk of excellent saves, shots, plays, and games. There was also talk of disheartenment but was instantly dismissed with positive comments by fellow friends. With lunch finishing fast, players warmed up again, then returned to the final games that would determine the champions.
The next game passed in a flash as the excitement for the championship match built up. Till this point, none of the two teams had lost a single game, the other teams had at least won one game, but this was it—the game to decide it all.
The whistle was off, and both teams instantly changed all the nervous energy to adrenaline; with the mix of excitement, impatience all coursing through everyone’s veins, the game took off. The game had its rollercoaster ride, with the offense and defense quickly fluctuating.
In the end, one team that had to win that team was…the Tiger Kings!
“A great way to end the tournament,” said 7th-grader Vincas summing up everyone’s feelings.
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