So this weekend was fun. Dave's parents came to town on Thursday night. They stayed with Nico while we attended and coached the Senior game. Saturday night we went to see Ira Glass, host of This American Life. Dave got me tickets for my birthday. Ira Glass is here as part of 7 Days of Opening nights. If you havent heard this American Life, I strongly recomend it. Its a pretty cool show. Ira Glass has this great nerdy/snarky voice and the show is about all kinds of people.
Sunday was pretty much a day of soccer. It was awesome. I was asked to play on the Tallahassee Women's State Cup team a few weeks ago. What this means, is that I will be playing on this team all around the state. Our scrimmage on Sunday was against the FSU Club team. You may remember the last time this happened... when I gave up 43498045 goals to them on a day when we didnt have many subs and some of the high school girls played. Note: this was so long ago I dont remember when it was. Yesterday was actually pretty fun- we had a baller team. We only lost 2-0 and I didn't seem to have my head up my own a$$- so that is a plus.
For some reason, I am always a little surpised when I play with the Tallahassee women. I don't get invited to do so often anymore... whether this is because everyone knows I am pretty busy and therefore on lockdown most of the time, or I have lost it (which is more likely the case), I am always surprised when I show up and I dont get hammered- because I have a decent team in front of me. Yesterday was a great game because there wasn't much I couldn't handle. Shots were largely at me, I had strong capable defenders who knew enough to know that if they got beat, all they had to do was keep the pressure up and basically run forwards into the goal area, where I relieved them of the ball. The two goals that happened, while a shame, were not the end of the world. It was fun.
What was not fun was that I managed to stick my foot in my mouth, all the way up, past my sock and shingaurd. Let me just start by saying that I think I am autistic. I have taken a couple of AQ tests and have gotten scores ranging from 28-35 (Aspergers is usually diagnosed at score of 32). It's not that I am meaning to be mean- its just that things don't come out the way I think they are going to. Several years ago, I told Kelly the Baller she didn't have any skill (which is apparently what I say to fast forwards because this is what I said to Madi- who thankfully thought I was joking.) I probably need to stop doing that since its not really true, nor is it funny (at least in the HA-HA sense... I mean, it is kind of funny that a goalkeeper would be saying that- given that the only reason why no one can say that about me is that passing and trapping aren't substantial portions of my game... but whatev.)
In any case, I think at halftime yesterday, I said, "Kelly, I forgot that you don't have any skill." Which is a terrible thing to say. What I meant was, "Kelly, I had forgotten how ridiculously fast you are." Case in point: Most coaches, whilst coaching defenders will often direct defenders to use the sideline appropriately. So a defender will basically position themselves to take away the inside and offer the line to the attacking player. Basically the gesture says, "Look, I see what you are doing here. But I am not going to let you inside. So if you insist on continuing on with this thing that you are doing... I suggest you go down the line." To which most forwards are like, "Yeah, cool. You got me. Since I can't take this into the middle, and there is no way I can take it down the line since you have only given me about 2 feet to do so and I am not very fast, I think that I will probably just stop this run and play the ball backwards. Thanks." And it's all nice and tidy. And predictable. Yesterday in the second half, there was a time when Kelly had to make that decision. And rather than choosing the easy way that most "skilled" players would have chosen, she took the girl down the line. That is how fast she is. She beat a defender down the line and kept the ball. That should not happen. As a defender, you give the forward the line because they aren't supposed to be able to beat you on the line. Kelly did it yesterday. Twice. It was awesome. And fun to watch. (Side note: Kelly does races. She wins. She is fast. She is basically Madi in about 14-15 years).
And what I came to realize is that its not that players like Kelly and Madi don't have skill... because they do. Its just that skilled, controlled play is such a minor part of their game. As it should be. When you are the fastest person on the field, why in the hell would you abdicate the best thing about you in favor of a type of play that EVERYONE can do? Not every team has a Madi or a Kelly- a fast, physical, aggressive player who can make defenses look ridiculous. Maybe asking those kinds of players to slow it down and play more controlled, passing and trapping and not forcing it kind of ball is like refusing to play a good hand that is dealt to you...
So- now that we have that figured out- that I have Asbergers and that Kelly has skill... check this out:
http://fl.milesplit.com/rankings/2011/outdoor/hs/f
Scroll down to "Mattie Harris". In her second track meet (EVER) she set the state record in the 800. As a freshman. Wha-what?
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