This morning I went to Trader Joe’s and found a line. Outside. Each person was carefully waiting six feet behind the next. They were only letting us in as someone else exited. It made shopping at Trader Joe’s feel as spacious as a normal store. Thankfully, they’d overstocked the shelves, communicating a world of abundance and an unspoken message to the food hoarders– only take your fair share of orange chicken. Four bags didn’t seem so extreme.
After I got home, Nate and I took two soccer balls down to Bellevue. One that was as hard as a rock. And one that was as flat as a rock. We took turns as striker and keeper. We hopped the new plastic fences and discreetly completed our recycling chores.
The sun and the thick, wet grass made me grateful we’d gotten lucky enough to finish the All Stars season before the arrival of Pandemic 2020. I’ve been meaning to try and capture a few of the highlights from our final tournament. I may not have all the details exactly right, but the emotions are something we’ll never forget.
The last weekend tourney for the Stars was the Area Q, the weekend of February 8th and 9th at the Barney Schwartz fields in Paso. It was the same place where we’d started the season, just a few short weeks prior. The Stars were not the same team they’d been way back in January.
Our first game was against our usual nemesis, Lompoc. Nate scored another hat trick. Our next game was against Paso B. Nate scored three again, but the ref called one back that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar, hit the net, and then bounced back out. This very play has inspired Nate to become a famous footballer so he can purchase VAR for the Under 10’s of the world. We won our third game against Atascadero B.
The next morning we had to leave in the 5AM hour. Nate is not the kind of kid that complains even one little smidge about being woken up in the dark to go play soccer 45 minutes away in below freezing weather for the second day in a row. Our morning game was against 5 Cities. We knew it was going to be tough. We surprised them when Nate scored with a left footed shot to the inside of the right net just 15 seconds after kick-off. Unfortunately, 5 Cities wasn’t having it. We lost by a lot, but were still in the medal running. Fortunately, Nate wasn’t too disappointed that he couldn’t eat Second Breakfast. Grandma delivered Nate a warm breakfast sandwich through the window of the truck.
Our final game was against Lompoc again, for third place. They’d brought their star scorer for Sunday. Word on the field was that he’d been sick the day before. The game was neck-and-neck. We were up. They caught up. Back and forth, back and forth. We were nearing the end and it was tied 4-4. As we were prepping to go into overtime, Coach made the controversial decision to put Nate in goal. I guess if it went into PK’s, he’d be goalie.
This of course is a recipe for me to have a heart attack. Kai B’s dad, Robbie, and I have traded off as cardiac-arrest victims for much of the season, depending on who is in as our last line of defense.
Nate caught a couple of hard shots. The pinnacle of coronary failure included a shot that hit the crossbar and bounced around two or three times before Nate smothered the ball with his body. Robbie and Granddad and I almost died right there on the sidelines.
The Stars put one more goal in during overtime and took third place in the tournament. Oh the grins and the jumping hugs and the admiration of engraved rose gold around one’s neck.
I’m sure this must be exactly what it feels like to win the World Cup.