Ay Ay Captain!

As the fall 2008 soccer season began, the thought of being a captain of the team never entered my mind. I never thought about the possibility, and probably for good reason. After all, this is my first season on varsity. So, it was no surprise that, when we elected our captains earlier this season, I was not one of the three selected. End of story, no arguing, it had been decided; I would have to wait another year to be recognized as a leader of the team.

Sometimes, in all sports, great players emerge from the bench when their superior goes down hurt, and make an impact. Tom Brady, perhaps the best quarterback in the NFL started out as a backup to Drew Bledsoe, and it wasn't until Bledsoe got injured that Brady was put into the game and showed his skill to the country. After Bledsoe had recovered, Brady had made enough of an impact to be made the starting quarterback, therefore starting the New England Patriots era that we've seen over the past few years.

Similar to that situation is the way in which I've come to be a captain this year. Although Craig Ladd's unfortunate concussion hurts the team, it's given me new excitement. For the next two weeks, I've been given the role of stand-in-captain. As this decision was made by our coach, it shows how much he thinks I mean to this team, and that means a lot to me. Arriving to practice today 30 t0 45 minutes late today after I had been working on my class banner, even though I'm not in student council, being made a captain was the last thing I would have expected. If anything, I was expecting the wrath of Bob Hammer. As ironic as it was, the first thing Hammer said to me when I walked onto the field to join the team was that I had been made a captain, at least for the next two weeks.

So, tomorrow is a very important day for the team. Tomorrow is our rematch against York, who we played in our first game of the year, while we were still under-manned. We lost that game by an ugly 4-1, making this next game quite an important one. As if I didn't have enough to think about involving tomorrow's game, my position was switched today to a forward, and I've now been made a captain. In other words, tomorrow is huge! Tomorrow has some incredible potential and will be a sweet night if things go well, and the downside of course, will be a disastrous night if things don't.

As we're about midway through the season, and have a pretty mediocre record to show for it this far, this game can be seen as a very important one not just for me individually, but for the team as a whole. This game may be looked back at one month from now and seen as either the game in which we folded and lost our chances of making sectionals, or maybe as the game in which we came together, scored some goals, took some names, and kicked some ass. With our backs up against the wall, roadblocks in our path, and potential disasters in our way, we need a win. I sleep tonight with great anticipation and anxiousness, for tomorrow will either be a really great night, or maybe not so much.