This was my final story on Rock Bridge girls soccer. It was challenging to come up with 4 stories about the team. I can’t imagine doing it for an entire season. Although, even in the short week that I covered that team, I really felt like I got to know the girls personalities. These girls were clearly the better team and had the opportunity to win in on a penalty kick with 29 seconds left in the game. The interesting thing about penalty kicks is that the pressure lies on one girl. In this case, it was a junior named Carmen. She missed the penalty shot and her team went on to lose in double overtime.
Losing is always bad, but in double overtime just makes the pain worse. It was the seniors last game ever for their high school and many of them had played varsity for three years. They turned the soccer program around. They won three straight District titles, but never made it past the final four. With a strong senior class, this was their year. As the ball crept past their goalkeeper, tears went streaming down all the girls faces, not just the seniors. Then, I had to approach them. It was clear I was the last person in the world they wanted to speak with at that moment. Obviously I was going to ask them about the game they just wanted to forget about as soon as possible. I was determined to speak to some of them. I started with Carmen and asked what went through her mind as soon as she missed the penalty kick. Tears went streaming down her face. She could barely get the words out at one point. I felt like I asked the wrong question at the wrong time, but I needed to put it out there. I needed to try and get my story. It was so hard to stand there and watch her cry. I wanted more than anything to tell her just to forget it and we can talk about this later or never. I’ve been in their situation. A horrible loss, seems like the worse thing in the world at the time. Often you just want to be alone. It took a lot for me to convince myself that I need to approach these girls instead of giving them the space I believe they deserved. No one turned me down when I asked to speak with them. This taught me a lot. Even though I really didn’t want to approach any of them, once I did, despite their state, they were still willing to speak with me.