“You must
protect Teacha!” said Elvis to Athumani during today’s football match at sports
time.
Having
thought this morning that there wouldn’t be time to go out, I wore a long,
straight blue skirt and my beaded flip-flops to school. Big mistake. When we
got outside, I somehow stumbled onto the field and one of the 15 girls in the class called to me, “Teacha! You are a goalkeeper?!” When I looked
around, I realized that I was right smack dab in the middle of the two rocks
that were serving as the goal posts for one team. My initial reaction was to
yell, “No way!” while running off the pitch, but I found the words, “Why not?!”
spilling out of the mouth. I kicked off my sandals and mentally prepared to
make a fool of myself in front of the entire Standard 6 class (the coolest
class in school, by the way.)
Luckily
for me, the team I had found my way on to was really good and the ball stayed
at the other end of the field for most of the game. When the ball found its way
to me the first time, I felt inadequate and became nervous. Did I really just
voluntarily subject myself to possibly looking like a total fool out there? Is
my hand-eye coordination good enough to at least look like I knew what I was
doing? And just as I was beginning to doubt myself and felt alone between those
two rocks, I found students Elvis and Athumani were on either side of me, ready
to defend their goal, and their teacher, against the other team. This is when
Elvis looked at Athumani and said, “You must protect Teacha!” What a great
moment…Elvis could have said, “Teacher, you’re not good enough,” or “Athumani, cover
the goal, teacher can’t do it.” But we were a team and when I wasn’t so sure I
could do it, I was reassured that my students had my back.
It
wasn’t about individual ability, but working together as a team. I wish I could
say I taught them that, but I feel like that’s the way they have always viewed
sports, which if really refreshing. It’s not about the individual all-star’s
success, but the team that looks out for each other is the one that comes out
on top. And in the next moment, with that in mind, I knew I had to give it my
all, not to save face, but to play my part on the team. I put my hand out and
blocked the first goal attempt from the other team! I got several thumbs up and
a grin from Elvis that said, “You’re pretty good, Teacha!”
I punted
it back down to the other end and waited and waited and waited as my team tried
over and over again to score. A few minutes later the ball was back in my
direction, headed straight for my head but this time I felt more than
confident. I don’t know what it was but today, after that first solid block, I
became more comfortable on a sports field and in a competition (if you know me
at all, you know I hate competition) than ever before. Mostly, I am sure,
because I had some great kids on my team and knew they would make up for my
lack of ability. Luckily, as the ball came barreling toward me, I put my heads
up just in time and knocked it away. They tried to score again…I kicked the
ball to Athumani. Another block! At that moment, Elvis turned to me again and
said, “You are a good goalkeeper!” I never
in a million years would use “good” and “goalkeeper” in the same sentence when
describing my football abilities unless the words “at watching someone else
play the…” was put in the middle.
Five
minutes later the bell rang and I received more thumbs-up and several ‘Great job!’s
from my students. We won 1-0 and it was awesome. Maybe it was a small victory
and something that my students won’t even remember during sports next Wednesday
but I did it. I played football barefoot, in a long restricting skirt, in the
heat of the day, and I held my own. I think
I earned just a little bit of “street cred” with my hard to impress, incredibly
talented football playing 6th graders.
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