Chapter 61

September 10, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

Everyone slept in this morning, so we went to Granny Brown’s for brunch, where the food and conversation were good. Upon our return, we girls excused ourselves to our room. Shortly after we got there, Heather’s phone rang. She gave us a puzzled expression, then hunted down her phone.

“It’s Civia,” she exclaimed. “Hi, Civia!”

Heather put her phone on speaker, and we had a happy conversation with Civia about algebra. It seems that her dad had asked her the ... magic question: “Do you want to learn the basis of algebra?” [A Tall, Young Girl, chapter 4] We congratulated her and chatted about less-consequential stuff for a few minutes, until Civia begged off, as her family was going to a park.

I spent much of the day catching up on the diary, while Heather dove into her Calc text, and Rhee read for English. Once I’d caught up, I read for English. After dinner, Rhee and I moved into Gracey and Liya’s room to leave ours for Heather to host Dad tonight. Rhee and I spent some time after lights-out talking quietly and cuddling. We smiled at each other when we heard Heather orgasm.

September 11, 2017

Rhee and I grabbed the shower upon arising; Heather and Dad popped into it after we finished. We watched the two of them for a little bit. However, that was getting us turned on, so we decided to leave them to it. We stripped Gracey and Liya’s bed to prepare for construction this week. Just in case, we dressed before heading down to breakfast that the Moms nearly had complete when we got there; they were also dressed.

We got to learn in most classes today. Hooray! After homeroom, Heather headed to the university and I headed to study hall. Liya predicted it. An 11^th-grade boy in the study hall chatted me up and, without directly asking, seemed to suggest that we spend some time together. Thanks to Liya and Dad, I was prepared with an explanation of soccer practice and trying to do well in classes. He wasn’t very happy with me, but I didn’t much care, as I was trying to get more of the book for English read.

At practice, Coach announced that she had made cuts, but had offered to allow both girls to continue practicing with the team. I inferred that Callie had declined in something of a huff. Emma Crewe had taken Coach up on her offer. Since she was only two people away, I quickly congratulated her on what I thought was a good decision. Coach announced that we would be spending much of this week on full-field scrimmages. Heather looked at me and grinned.

Coach said, “Today, since the weather forecast seems to have been a bit in error and it is not raining hard, we will be returning to a drill, the one that the premier team lovingly calls FOTPIG.”

Yes, the drill of our undoing last week. However, we were prepared for just this eventuality, having talked it over on the ride to school.

After a shortened rondo session, Coach began FOTPIG with some reasonably random allocations to the O and D, random enough that I got picked for D, being teamed with Jules Paxton (one of the Brit girls) and Susanna Jackson. Since Susanna is a defensive midfielder, we put her in the middle, while Jules took the right back slot. Unfortunately, we had to face Katie, Mila, Rhee, and Addiah Okoye, Addiah being an offensive midfielder with an interesting accent. We allowed them only three goals in eight minutes, which I thought was an accomplishment. Rhee did sucker us once, with both Susanna and me collapsing on her, whereupon Rhee squeaked a nice chip between us to Mila who slammed it home. Susanna has some good D skills, and she made one really good play on Katie, stripping the ball from her. Civia got selected twice, once each for D and O; Heather was on D once. An hour into the drill, Coach whistled us to a stop.

“Shameka, Kim, and Rachel on D. Beth, Rhee, Heather, and Civia on O. Hope in goal.”

There was much murmuring.

Heather had cornered Civia right when she arrived at the practice pitch and quickly and quietly explained a few plays that we had planned on the ride to school, so I was confident that we’d make a better showing than we had last week. We set up with Civia on left wing, Rhee left-middle, me right-middle, and Heather right wing.

Coach started us off by kicking the ball to Civia. Since we had expected that, we had designed one of the plays around it. Rhee immediately broke upfield and right, while Heather hauled left. Civia one-touched the ball to me and immediately headed upfield. I one-touched it on the ground to Heather, who had begun angling upfield at full speed, heading right for Shameka. As soon as the ball left my foot, I began moving hard to the left and upfield, while Rhee had turned around and come back to the center of the field curling around behind me. Shortly before Heather reached Shameka, she back-heeled it, then peeled hard to the right. From just inside the penalty box outside the longitude of the right post, Rhee curled the ball left-footed around Shameka as she was going the opposite direction and inside the left post. Less than ten seconds in and we had our first goal.

A bunch of the watching girls gave the hissing sound of someone being burned. Shameka yelled “Damn!” I smiled at her and she shook her finger at me. I looked over at Coach, who was slowly shaking her head. She also wagged her finger at me.

Last week, Coach had sent the ball in the first time to Civia, the second time to Heather. In the planning on the ride to school, we thought that Coach might try to throw us for a loop by sending the second ball in to Civia this time. We had a plan if she did. We also had a plan for her sending it to Rhee, but that’s all we thought we’d have the chance to explain to Civia in what we figured would be a short time prior to practice. If it came to Heather or me, we would just have to improvise.

When Coach kicked the ball to Civia, I stepped on my natural response to grin because we’d anticipated her, again. We did everything the same ... up to a point. Civia one-touched it to me and broke upfield, while Heather and Rhee ran the identical crossing pattern of the previous play. I one-touched it to Heather, who ran straight at Shameka. However, instead of hauling right and upfield, I went left and upfield to force Kim to deal with me. As Heather approached Shameka this time, she faked the back-heel, went right for two steps, then pulled off her patented 270-degree turn. She left-footed it between knee- and waist-high behind me toward Civia, who had stopped heading toward the goal a couple yards inside the penalty box. As in our first pick-up game with the boys, Civia wheeled on the ball volleying it toward the left side of the goal. Hope’s dive for the ball had her finger tips a couple feet short of the ball, which ballooned out the back of the net for our second goal in about a minute.

Coach blew her whistle and yelled, “Everyone, goal box on the double!”

Since no one was more than a few yards from it, we were all in an arc around her quickly.

“When did you plan those plays, Beth?

“On the ride to school. Heather briefed Civia as soon as she got here.”

“You knew I’d set this up today, didn’t you?”

“More correctly, we suspected that you would. Rhee, Heather, and I did not do our jobs on Thursday and we did not want to disappoint you again. We suspected that, with the team’s need to begin learning how to play together before our first game, we’d be spending a lot of time scrimmaging this week and figured that you’d test us on FOTPIG, today. So, we hashed out a few plays in the car this morning.”

“Did you have plays designed for all four possibilities of whom I’d send the ball to get things started?”

“No, Coach. We designed the first one for a start with Civia, figuring that you’d consider the possibility that we’d plan something and try to subvert it by sending it to Civia. We did get somewhat lucky in that both shots went in the goal. I was pretty sure that the first play would work out, as even from near the penalty-box line, Rhee’s pretty accurate, even with her left.”

“But then you had another play for a start with Civia.”

“Yes, Coach. Thursday, you sent the ball in the second time to Heather and we thought that you’d remember that and that you’d think that we’d remember that. We felt that you would most likely try to circumvent any play we had that started with Heather by kicking it to Civia, again. We had a backup plan in case we guessed wrong, but we didn’t guess wrong, and Civia did a great job on that volley.”

“Yes, she did. And you girls out-thought me. I congratulate you. Sorry about that Hope. I didn’t know that I was setting you up. Beth really is good at out-thinking people, including me, on occasion. I know that Rhee and Heather were also in the planning session, but these two plays have Beth’s name written all over them. I knew that they’d buckle down today, and suspected that they’d, somehow, have a planned play or two that they’d trot out. I promise that I was trying to trip them up.

“Let’s see what you four can do without a set play. Same teams, Mila in goal. Beth, take the ball out to the 30-yard line and start things off.”

She tossed a ball to my feet, and I turned and dribbled it back to between the two cones that delineated the 30-yard line. Without designed plays, we did not do quite as well, but we did get three more goals in the next ten minutes, with the last one being a doozy, with lots of crisp passing, some excellent reads within our team as to what others of us were going to do, and Heather being right where Rhee expected her to be; Heather nailed an outside-left shot off a short one-hop that beat Rose just inside the left post. That was Heather’s second goal, matching Civia’s two.

Coach whistled an end to the drill and had us all gather in the goal box again.

“Raise your hands, what was interesting about the distribution of goals for this offense?” When some hands went in the air, she said, “Crewe, what do you think?”

“Rhee and Beth kept pulling the D to them, then setting up the others.”

“Indeed. Why do you think they did that?”

“Um, because everyone knows that Rhee is the main goal scorer, including the D. I’d have done like they did and expect Rhee to shoot.”

“In fact, even though this back line, which is as good a back line as I’ve ever seen in girls’ soccer, fell into the trap. In fact, Crewe, why don’t you ask Rhee why she kept giving the ball up.”

“Me?” When Coach nodded at her, Emma Crewe tentatively asked, “Rhee, why did you keep giving the ball up?”

Rhee answered, “Because that was the plan that we made this morning for the time after we ran out of set plays. More than once on the premier team, we set opponents up by feeding the ball into me as often as possible to get the D used to collapsing on me. It was hard on me the first time, but I got to enjoy it after a while, and got a lot of assists out of it.”

Coach said, “Even though it may seem that this offense had their way with this defense, Shameka, Kim, and Rachel actually did a very good job. The O always has an advantage in this drill, so the metric of success is the time it takes to score goals, not the goals themselves. On the premier team, the starting offense could regularly get six to eight goals in ten to 15 minutes. As Shameka said on Thursday, the strategy of the D when outnumbered is to delay the offense, not necessarily to stop it. As I said earlier, Shameka’s back line did quite well. And if any three of you want to disagree with me about that, I’ll be happy to pit you against this foursome anytime you want.

“We’ll call it a day, now. We’ll be scrimmaging the rest of this week, 11 on 11, full field, as we need to get the team used to each other. It is highly possible that all practices will run long. If anyone has a conflict with that, please let Liya know as soon as I end practice today. On three of the four days, we will have the starting offense and midfield working against the starting back line and Hope, supported by the backup back line and one of the backup goalies. However, since I’m not positive what formation we’ll be using, I’ll be trying out two versions each of a 3-4-3 and a 4-3-3.

“The main reason that I’m not considering a more offense-oriented formation, that is, some version of a 3-3-4, is that we have the most depth in midfield, and I’m a firm believer in winning through control of the midfield. We have what is probably the best starting back line in the league, perhaps in the state, and I’m comfortable depending upon those three. However, I do want to see what we can do with a 4-3-3, so we’ll try that out on Thursday.

“Wednesday’s practice is up in the air for now. The forecast, which wasn’t correct for today, calls for rain on Wednesday, but it might start and end before practice starts. Unless it’s raining hard at the start of practice, we’ll do the typical stretching, warmups, and laps outside, but we will be skipping rondo. We’ll have a critique of Tuesday’s practice, then we’ll scrimmage, but this time with the starting offense being supported by the backup midfield and back line.

“To confirm the suspicions that most of you must have, unless things go off the rails, the tentative starters for our first game are Hope, Shameka, Kim, Rachel, Katie, Jules, Jess, Beth, Rhee, and Heather. Yes, I know that’s only ten, but since I don’t, yet, know which line will have a fourth member, I don’t, yet, know who the 11^th starter will be. Actually, I have also been thinking about a 4-4-2, but that formation is a long shot. Once we get used to playing together and I’ve had more time to see how others work together, we may alter formation to match up better against particular opponents. Obviously, that last will require us to learn how those opponents play, how they score, and who scores for them.

“Tomorrow, we will start with Rhee, Beth, and Heather on the front line supported by Jess, Jules, Katie, and Gracey in a midfield diamond, Jess up front, Katie as the stopper, Jules on the right. I’ll be calling some of you individually before we hit the locker room today to give you individual parameters of your assignments. Liya will let you know when to join me. Hang out here until I whistle practice over.”

Coach walked up to the centerline, then waved at Liya, who sent Shameka to her first. I sidled over to Emma Crewe.

“You’re 14, right?” When she nodded, I asked, “Do you know why Coach offered to let you practice with the team?”

“I believe that she didn’t do it in case she could add me to the roster later. I think that the rosters are set from the beginning of the season. Do you know?”

“They are set. I think that Coach is annoyed that there aren’t enough girls playing to have JV teams. I’ll bet she sees that you’ve learned while you’ve been here and that you’ve gotten better. She’s giving you a better chance to make the team next year. Not only will you have a chance to improve during practice this year, but you’ll also know the team well before our season is over, so you might fit well next year. Coach believes in fit, and she’s at a big disadvantage this year because she doesn’t know most of us well enough, although she certainly seems to expect good things from Shameka, Kim, and Rachel.”

“Yeah, they’re amazing. I’ve never seen fullbacks as good as them. I see where you’re going. They’ll all be graduating. I didn’t quite see that there will be three back-line slots to fill next year, and I’m a fullback.”

“Yes. With hard work and obvious learning this year, you’ll have something of an inside shot on a slot next year. I’ve known Coach for three years, and she rewards hard work. When Gracey began working really hard last year to learn how to be a fullback, she rewarded her with the starting job this year. Most of the back-line backups this year will be 9^th-graders, so you’ll have a reasonable chance to make the team next year. I suggest taking advantage of your ... advantage.”

She nodded and said, “I’ll try. Thanks.”

I found Jimena Soares and walked over to her. She’s a 10^th-grade forward and I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t sore at me for beating her out for a starting position.

“Hey, Jimena. I’d like to get to know you and the other forwards better. I know Coach, and she’ll be mixing and matching girls in practice and in games to see which ones work well together. Rhee, Heather, and I have a big advantage as we’ve been working together for a while, now.”

“Yeah, it’s almost unfair, but I know I’m not as good as Rhee in any aspect. I hope to learn some things from her. You and Heather are also really good. Is there any chance that you can teach me something about your field awareness?”

“Probably. Some of it, anyway. Coach had me tested in my second year on the premier team, when I was 13. For whatever reason or reasons, apparently, I’m an oddball, with abnormally wide peripheral vision. I cannot teach that, but I can probably teach other aspects of field awareness. A lot of it is mental, keeping track of where everyone is...” Liya called my name, so I said, “Excuse me.”

I trotted to the centerline to see what Coach wanted.

“I know you’ve been thinking about this since we started, so I’d like to know what you think about our primary formation.”

“Exactly what you’re having us play tomorrow, a 3-4-3 with a midfield diamond. I guess that’s actually a 3-1-2-1-3. If Civia were a playing member, I’d argue strongly for a 3-3-1-3.”

Coach nodded for a few seconds, then said, “I know you have suggestions within that formation, so give ‘em up.”

“Again, I agree with you about the diamond and who is where. Jess is a good shot and handles the ball very well. I assume that she and I will run the offense, me as a false 9. I assume that you’ve seen this, but I’d give Jules and Rachel green lights to make offensive runs to widen the field. With Rachel going on offense, you need a left half that is good on defense, and that’s Gracey. She can backfill for Rachel if she gets caught far forward on a sideline run. Rhee and Heather are the goal scorers, sharing the striker duty.”