Chapter 9

August 31, 2018 (Friday)

Author: Char Sanderson

The result of the classroom session to talk about formations resulted in deciding that we would keep the 3-2-3-2 in our bag, since the tricky part of that one for this team was the O, not the D, the latter having changed completely between last year and this. In the short term, we would test a 4-2-1-3 (although no one could figure out during the session how to staff that one), a 3-3-1-3 (with Rhee at center half), and a 4-3-1-2, although that last was also tricky to figure out who plays where, given the number of effective forwards on the team). Although we didn’t practice very long, we refreshed the team’s memory about last year’s 3-2-3-2 and taught me how to play that one.

At the end of the classroom session, Beth introduced a point, smiling at me, first, then saying, “Char’s creating a problem for us.” She held up a hand at the responses and added, “If we could play a four-girl front line, she wouldn’t be a problem, as that’s something we practiced once last fall. However, a three-girl front line would mean that someone who was a starter on a school team last fall or Civ would not start. A two-girl front line would be a bit tricky. If we played last year’s 3-2-3-2, then the wing midfielders would be responsible for spreading the field, thus stressing an entirely new back line if the O got caught far forward on an opponent’s counter. I’ll let Coach point out something *I* think would be a problem of either a 4-3-3 or a 3-1-3-3, the 1 being a stopper.”

Coach let a bunch of murmuring, whispering, and less-quiet conversations go on for a while in pockets in the room and then seemed happy when Jess said, “Coach, I see Beth’s problem, as well as quite a few others, and all of those problems involve keeping girls out of the starting lineup who have started in the past or who have skill sets that we’d rather have on the pitch than the sideline.

Coach called on Civ when her hand shot into the air.

“Coach, what I have to say will take some time.” Coach gave her the go-ahead hand motion, so Civ gathered herself, and started, “Beth and Jess are right. Once again, this team is ... very unbalanced, not so much by position but by age-slash-class. There are only three seniors – the Brits and Rose, six juniors – all in the young half of the class, fourteen sophomores, and five freshmen ... or younger, with only one of those already 14 ... thanks to the team having a crazy three girls who skipped a grade in elementary school.” Civ let the responses to her last sentence go for a few seconds, then stated over them, “Although they’re young, at least we know they’re smart!”

I saw Coach put a hand over her mouth and, considering the extreme twinkling in her eyes, I suspect she laughed at Civ’s zinger.

Civ continued, “It’s my understanding that the previous coach gave our juniors very little game time when they were freshmen, and if we don’t fix that this year, next year’s team might have some unhappy seniors. Four of the six juniors are midfielders, while of the 14 sophomores six are on the O, five are fullbacks, and Crewe is a fullback/midfielder.”

When she looked at Coach, she gave Civ the go-ahead signal again, so she continued with, “Last year, once we figured out a formation that fit with the even odder team we had last year, we had very little trouble in our league. Like the premier team’s extreme preponderance of seniors this spring, we need to get a bunch of juniors playing time and it would be very good to get this year’s freshmen some playing time, also. Coach, I think the premier team’s solution to the unbalanced roster might work better than anything else with this team and would enable a lot of playing time for most, if not all.”

When various teammates asked, Civ explained about the premier team’s two lineups and then Coach let various conversations go for almost ten minutes before she called out, “Front and center!” When she had all eyes on her, she breathed deeply, then began with, “As those of you on this team last year know, Civ’s position as staff made her very knowledgeable about this team, despite that she’s the youngest in this room.

“Everyone here knows what the premier team did this year, so let’s start the discussion about running two lineups this fall, each getting a half of each game.” When a bunch of hands went up, Coach said, “Go, Team Captain.”

Jess shook her head at Coach’s words, then asked, “Did you want to remind me that anyone in my position should be looking out for the whole team, not just for herself?”

“Yup. Did it work?”

Amid some chuckling, Jess answered, “Sort of. I see Civ’s point, and it’s a valid one. I have a few questions, and, Coach, if I may, I’d like to ask them of Civ.”

“Go ahead.”

Jess turned to face Civ and asked, “What would you do with the six extra girls on the team after assigning 22 to the two lineups?”

“Those six should be subs for both lineups, as they’ll need the game time.”

Jess cocked her head and looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, then answered, “That makes perfect sense ... at some level.”

Civ responded, “And I understand your concern. However, our first five games are all league games and, unless one or two of those greatly upgraded this year over last, I don’t see that being a problem. Also, I can guess the makeup of those six, and I would only rarely be concerned with putting them on the pitch, even against good teams. I think we’ll have a lot of time to get those girls bumped up a notch or two before we must throw them into the fire.”

Jess nodded quite a few times as if she were working through Civ’s arguments while considering individual team members, then asked, “How would you assign members to individual lineups?

“I want no part of assigning teammates to lineups. However, on the premier team, one of the lineups, as everyone knew, was made up of the girls who would have been the starters. That worked well for the team, as the second lineup had to girl-up and increase their skill and knowledge levels. By the end of the season, as Coach noted, the second lineup had nearly caught the other lineup in skill and quality, and that first lineup had not stagnated through the season. I’m not saying that I’m sure that would happen here if we implemented two lineups like that. However, getting what any other team would call backups 45 minutes of game time every game is a big win for us late in the season, particularly come tournament time, and it also helps this team out next year.”

Jess figuratively leaned back and obviously pondered Civ’s words hard. She contemplated long enough that she felt a need to hold a hand up to keep someone else from jumping into the fray before she had fully processed her thoughts to a conclusion.

“Civ, are you sure you’re not a pro coach who, through some ... metaphysical process is occupying the body of a young girl?”

Civ chuckled, stepped over to Jess and asked, “May I hug you?”

Jess was a little thrown off by the question, but nodded and put her arms around Civ as Civ’s arm went around her.

As they separated, Coach called out, “Listen up!” When she had all eyes back on her, she said, “That was interesting: The youngest and second-oldest girls on the team discussing the team’s near-term future. Does anyone have any substantive disagreements with Civ’s suggestion?”

Jules spoke up, “Not once Civ mentioned the two points of our first five opponents probably not pushing us and the advantages to the team late in the season and next year. I’d like another crack at Delta-North, and having Civ’s result of the two-lineups plan may well provide us a chance to change the ending this time.”

That put paid to any concern about playing two lineups.

Coach talked over a bit of chatter, saying, “We’ve got 11 days ‘til our first game, which is here, at home, on Tuesday, the 11^th. Let’s, please, not make any cracks about disasters. Okay?” After she sent the evil eye around the room to ensure no cracks, she changed tacks with, “We’ll push formations to Monday once I’ve come up with the two lineups. Our uniforms are in these boxes up here. Everyone on the team last year wanted the same number as last year, so you’re good to go. The new girls all got the numbers they wanted, so life is good. There’s a checkout list up here, which has each of your names and the number you have. Make sure the uniform number and the size agree with who you are before you sign anything. If they’re both right, then please write your name ... legibly ... in the first column, the one next to the uniform number, then sign it in the second.”

“Oh, one last thing: We need names for the two lineups. On the premier team, we used two noble gases, Krypton and Argon. I thought that worked well, so I want two different noble gases for this team’s lineups.” When Smythe shot her hand high into the air with a couple of “oooh” syllables escaping her mouth, Coach said, “Obviously, Emma S wants this one. Whatcha got?”

“I thought about this recently. How ‘bout Neon and Xenon?”

“That sounds good to me. Since you were on the ball, Em, you can decide which gas goes with which lineup.”

“Thanks! Neon for the ... better lineup.”

“Why that way?”

“I thought about that, too. When it’s excited, say by electricity, everyone knows that neon is bright and flashy; no one knows what Xenon is.”

“The season’s first attagirl goes to Emma Smythe!”