Yours truly has undertaken the generally-joyous task of coaching two soccer teams at Cabrini Academy this fall. After the season’s opening week, we’re sitting with a 1-1 record, and a 3-3 goal aggregate. Ultimately, things are looking up, but…
The two things I didn’t want to hear at this early juncture have already been realized.
1. My goalie suffered a brutal schoolyard arm break today. While I feel for the kid – who lives just around the corner from me – I won’t lie in saying that my first thought wasn’t selfish. As in: I JUST LOST MY KEEPER! Oy!
2. After a tournament win the other day (a brisk, effective 2-0 dispatch of our stunned opponents), a tourney director came across the field to deliver the grim news. Our next game was set: Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Ordinarily, those would be painful enough words. On the morning after the double-bill of the Dandy Warhols at Pop’s and the Unconscious at the Duck Room, they are almost too much to process.
For this Wednesday evening, though, we focus only on what’s right in front of us (hey, there’s no game tomorrow morning, let’s grab a drink!) while praying to the gods of broken bones, begging them to take no more victims until basketball season.