By: Nidhi Vasani December 2019
Everyone loves a good underdog story. The story of the Varsity Girls Flag Football team is probably the best one you’ve heard in a while. We started the season in the first week of September. Our three captains jumped on the opportunity to recruit anyone and everyone - from new ninth graders to returning grade twelves - as soon as possible. After three sets of tryouts, we had selected a group of fifteen to twenty girls who were ready to tackle any obstacle we happened to encounter (pun intended). We did, however, conclude that we would have to begin with the basics. On the other hand, the school’s admin warned us that we wouldn’t even be allowed to meet up as a team unless we were able to find a staff sponsor. Fortunately, our knight in shining armour swooped in to save the day; a new teacher had offered to supervise the team, and we were more than grateful. It felt like a dream, and it may as well have been - he had to leave as soon as the decision had been finalized. As we fell farther and farther into this black hole, propelled by the district’s regulations regarding school teams, another beautiful soul threw us a lifeline and brought us back into the playing field. Though she knew little about the game, Ms. Emad made sure that we were all set to participate in the ROPSSAA season, from a bureaucratic standpoint.
If you know anything about sports, you know that having a coach is crucial for any functional team. But of course, if we were able to find a coach for the football team, life would be too easy and this story would be too predictable. Our hunt for a teacher with any football experience, who was willing to stay back after school a couple of days a week, was futile. The team finally agreed that we would have to find somebody else to take up the leadership role. For the rest of the season, one of the team captains became our defence coach, while her father volunteered to help out with offence. Needless to say, these circumstances were less than ideal. Due to conflicting schedules of the coaches, supervisors and team members, we had one practice per week, if any at all.
Given the overabundance of challenges we had to overcome, our team had a surprising number of victories to celebrate, though none of which were games we won. “Breaking on three” became a skill we mastered to perfection. In fact, our whole team cheer definitely intimidated our opponents. In all seriousness, we saw some impressive plays, by both veterans and new team members, and of course, there was much improvement made. The flag football team became so much more than a team; it became a family. From karaoke in the taxis to dancing during halftime, we made many unforgettable memories. Although we were no team of football superstars, we were always pretty serious about our games and tried our best regardless of the skill level of our opponents. When the day of our final game arrived, the weather outside was horrible, with dark grey clouds looming over the field which had been turned into a muddy mess by heavy drops of rain. Due to unsafe playing conditions, the game was cancelled and we were all devastated. We had all been looking forward to playing together one last time before the end of the season, but unfortunately, the weather didn’t allow us to do so.
While this isn’t your generic success story, being on the flag football team was a great experience for every team member. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was an opportunity for all of us to learn a thing or two about the sport as well as each other, not to mention, we had some crazy fun times. Against all odds is an understatement when describing the journey of the Varsity Girls Flag Football Team, and the fact that we stood a fighting chance at all of our games. To anybody interested in joining the team next year, listen for announcements, bring you cleats and be prepared to have the time of your lives!
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