Weekly Blog #1 (Cleat to the Shin)

Two days ago, Episcopal had two soccer games. The varsity played Redemptorist and JV played Catholic's freshman team. By the time the varsity game started, I was already tired from two hours of warming up. I still had two games in front of me that I needed to play. Whenever there is a JV game following a varsity game, the coach does not play me as much as normal because he wants me to play full time in the JV game. So I played for a total of fifteen minutes in the varsity game. Just those fifteen intense minutes made me even more tired. The JV game started, and Catholic's freshman was amazing. They were faster than our varsity team, and I will say it now that when they are seniors, they are going to destroy everyone in their path. Anyways, I am playing the game and doing fine. We score in 45 seconds and then they come back fast. The first half ends 2-1 with them in the lead. The second half starts, and it is extremely cold and all contact with the ball or other players leaves a sting that makes you wish you were at home relaxing. Not too far into the second half, this guy is running with the ball through the defense. He dodges two of our defenders, and then it was basically just me and him. Instead of doing another move, his foot somehow comes over the ball, and over my shin guard, and rams his hard plastic cleats into my shin. A cleat to the shin at any time is extremely painful, but it made it worse that this guy was sprinting at full speed and it was 40 degrees. As soon as I got hit, I looked down to make sure that nothing was broken because it hurt that bad. I could not stand still or keep control because I was sure that something was broken and the pain was unbearable. Just imagine the momentum of a cleat in cold weather hitting your bare leg. The pain flowed throughout my whole body, and I sat out for the next ten minutes while I fought off the pain. I got back in and was a little mad and took a shot from really far out that was really solid and strong. The keeper fumbled with it for a few seconds before picking it up, and that was the last major opportunity of the game. The kid that hit me apologized later, saying that it must have hurt and that he was very sorry. Cheers to me getting my leg broken by a Catholic High freshman.