Back in my college days, my circle of friends once decided to play indoor soccer. Only a handful of us had even played soccer before, but we would not be denied. So we practiced three or four times and joined the intramural league. I don't remember what our team name is, anymore. Pity, that.

The only night everyone had the evening free to play was the night of the "competitive" league, not the "collegial" league, meaning our opponents were all-male, out-for-blood types. Our mixed-gender, largely untrained team got smoked every single game. We didn't even get a goal until the final game of the season. Which is not to say we were completely hapless; although Paul had never played soccer, his years of hockey meant that few people challenged him for the ball near the boards a second time. That's because they realized they could just wait for him to have to pass it or dribble away from the boards, and it's harder to check someone when there's nothing to check them into.

The last game of the season, I got my right thumb bent backwards, breaking one of the bones. I'm stubborn about such things, so I just iced it down for two days, until the swelling was so dramatic that my friends essentially dragged me to the clinic for X-rays.

I mention this because for today's PT*, Gunny decided we'd have some fun, and the six of us played three-on-three one-hand-touch football, on a greatly shortened field. I devised a method to randomly pick teams, which was good that there were no last-guy-picked nastiness, but bad because it ended in unbalanced teams. My team had me, the soccer player; LCpl "Tron", who was a fencer (and has a cold); and Cpl W, who was a distance swimmer and soccer player. The other team had Gunny, who played football; Cpl O, who played lacrosse; and Cpl McG, who also played football.

As you might imagine, we got smoked. Lost 12 touchdowns to 7.

And I told the story at the top because I got my left thumb bent back, and it feels a lot like the right one did back when I broke it. Hmmm. I'm going to ice it for a while before I go to medical, though. It might just be strained.

And for next week, Cpl W and I are going to bring a soccer ball, and we're going to play with the same teams.

*Footnote: Yes, it's Saturday. Of course we're working. We always work. I had a weekend off two weeks ago, and it was a miracle.

Posted by: Boviate at 07:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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