What a weekend! The end of season soccer tournament was on Saturday and it held all the elements of a classic feel-good sports movie: There was action, drama, nail-biting tension, a black moment, and finally glory. This might be a good time to navigate away if you don’t want to hear a proud mother gush.
In preparation for the tournament, I spent all of Friday morning baking cupcakes for the after-party for my daughter’s team – a batch of white cake and a batch of chocolate, both to be frosted with chocolate. I also made a batch of brownies in a mini-muffin tin. You know how it is – if you want something done, you have to do it yourself? For logistical reasons I was unable to be the team-mom for both teams this year as I was last year (they played simultaneously at different fields) but when I sent out an email suggesting to the parents of my son’s team that someone should organize some special post-tournament party snacks and a coach appreciation gift no one responded. I did not want the little man to be disappointed, hence the brownies.
Friday afternoon was tennis lessons as usual. After my daughter’s two hour lesson, I bought her dinner at our club. No more than an hour later she came up to me and said she’d vomited. I felt her head for fever (none) and asked her if she felt better. She said she did so I thought perhaps it was just eating a heavy meal after a fairly strenuous lesson. Not so long after that, she said she was tired and unwell and wanted to go home. She fell into bed at 7pm and ended up waking up 2x more in the night to throw up.
She had no fever and no other symptoms of the flu so I knew it had to be either the food or a stomach virus of some sort and I was so upset for her – she’d been sick last year for the tournament as well. Her team this year had finished first in their league and had a good chance to do well in the tournament, but she is one of their pivotal players. I didn’t want to break her heart by not allowing her play, but neither did I want to make her sicker by letting her go.
She woke early the next morning and asserted that she was JUST FINE and she wanted to play. She still had no fever and her eyes looked clear (you can always tell by the eyes) though she did look a bit droopy. I decided to test her with a glass of water and a piece of toast. She ate it and asked for more so I decided to let her go for it and see what happened, though I did send a text message to her coach to warn him she wasn’t totally up to par.
My husband took my son to his first match at 8:30am. My daughter and I set out at 9am. Each of their teams won their first matches and each had to play again about noon. Each team won that match, advancing them to their league finals. My son’s match was at 2pm, my daughter’s at 4pm – which was great timing because it meant that finally we could all be there to watch each final.
My son is like the Energizer Bunny. He is an excellent mid-fielder – speedy and unafraid to put his body in there and take the ball. In spite of being tripped a few times and getting a kick to the arm (and a cleat-shaped bruise) he carried on and his team won the game and first place in their age division. It was truly a wonderful moment. In the beginning of the season I never dreamed they would get so far since they have four sweet but timid girls on their team who squeak every time the ball comes near them. Since they make up what passes for the team’s defense it is a real credit to the offense that they have done as well as they have this season!
Brownies were distributed, along with some juice boxes and granola bars, and the coach appreciation gift – a poinsettia and a $8 gift certificate to a local bagel shop. (Really? Is that they best they could do?) Since I wasn’t sure anyone was going to do ANYTHING so I had bought him a sports bag from my son and I am very glad I did!
(I collected money from the parents of my daughter’s team and gave the coach a Casio sport watch and a sports bag)
After collecting his medal and taking many pictures, we trooped back to the other field for my daughter’s final match. It was going to be a tough match but it helped to know that either way it went, they would get first or second place.
It was a very tough match. Shortly before the game started my daughter began to feel nauseated again. Coach left her out of the first quarter and then she played the last three. It was the best game she played all season. I don’t know if it was because she knew it was an important match or because she felt bad, she put forth that extra bit of effort but it was beautiful to watch her go. The other team played hard and the match ended 0-0 and went to penalty kicks, best of three.
We got our first, so did they. We missed our second, so did they. A hush fell as my daughter was up for her kick – she blasted it in and it caught in the net above the goalies head. Another hush as the other team took their last shot – and our goalie deflected it. VICTORY!
More medals (phew – two golds avoids any of that sibling rivalry too!), more pictures, then finally finally home at 5pm. The children were exhausted and so were we! I’m glad to have had such a great outcome for them both but the week is going to seem strangely quiet now that it’s all finished.
