“Hope” Writing Contest Winner- Live To Play Another Day

Live to Play Another Day

When I think of hope and what we associate it with the first thing that comes to mind for me is women.  In 2015 the United States Women’s Soccer team won the World Cup, a prestigious championship on the world’s biggest stage, yet they still fought against the men’s team for equal pay.  In 2017 we elected Donald Trump as President of the United States, over that of female candidate.  Surrounding his inauguration all around the world, women’s marches were held to fight for the equality and fair treatment of all women, but to also express our thoughts and feelings on female minority.  As a young woman myself, my memory of the NEPSAC Soccer New England Championships embodies just those qualities, a team of driven young women that fought until they couldn’t fight anymore and motivated a whole community.

It was November 19th, this past fall, that the girls of the Hebron Academy Varsity Soccer team walked up to the pitch of the New England semi-final match in the NEPSAC playoff tournament.  With a crowd of about 30, consisting of mostly parents and friends, and very few from the student body the girls walked together.  We walked with our hearts on our sleeves, eager and willing to start a match in which we knew nothing about our opponent, nor had we even expected to make it to this point.  We were backboned by our coach Colin Griggs, someone who embodied the biggest heart and whose passion for winning was contagious, and he passed that on to every one of us.  

When we were seeded for our first playoff birth in 13 years our boys team was seeded as well, given a much higher seed than us resulting from their undefeated regular season.  Many people doubted our chances at winning the tournament and being as successful as the boys because there was this unexplainable difference of faith and confidence in the boys rather than in us.  It was the 18 girls that pulled on the jerseys that day who believed, who were ingrained with that confidence, and who fought with emotion.  It was one of the closest, most competitive games we had ever laced our cleats for.  We played scoreless for a while, chances at both ends went back and forth boiling up the nerves as the clock kept ticking.  The first half was waning down when our opponent opened the game with the first goal.  In a time when we could’ve easily accepted defeat, slowed our runs, and hung our heads we did just the opposite.  The crowd of supporters rose around us consuming the atmosphere with encouragement and positivity.  It was finally late in the second half when Hebron tied it.  The scorer of that goal was not what mattered, nor will I give a name.  It was the 11 people standing within the lines of that field who told the story, the willingness to never give up.

It would take overtime for this one, nervous was an understatement of emotion at this point in the contest.  We as players, as well as the fans supporting us were in shock of the work we had put into every minute of this game to force an overtime.  In a game that we played from behind once more, it was in the second overtime that Hebron would score the game winning goal with just two and half minutes remaining in the overtime period.  The team came together for the final two minutes and left every last effort we had on that field, and we were once again victorious, shocking so many.

In the coming hours we took the field the next morning to play Vermont Academy in the New England Final, a dream come true.  We had disproven all expectations and outcomes others had for us, we had made it to the very end.  The game was so evenly matched that it took all but five minutes of regulation to determine a winner.  Though it wasn’t the lumberjacks who rose the championship trophy on that November afternoon, we as young women had won the hearts and respect of our community.  

What I take from that game was not the final score, the unfinished chances, or the mistakes, but the lessons I learned and the pride we walked away with that day.  I’d like to quote a teammate of mine in a social media post following that game talking about the conclusion of our season.  Senior Meaghan Donahue wrote, “What means the most to me is that as female athletes so many doubted us, and we proved so many wrong.  We just set the bar for female athletes at Hebron so high this past week.”  That is what we played for in those last two games.  We played for respect, we played for recognition, but most of all we played for each other.  Though at many points in those last two games when momentum had left us and we were playing from behind many lost hope, but across the field from the fans who may have doubted was a culmination of about 20 whose hope never left.  

Following that game there were tears and disappointment, but what diminished all that was the hearts of 18 young women who fought for respect, and who came together and loved each other.  In a community that had become obsessed over the hype of the boys soccer team for so many years, the girls had finally stepped atop the podium along with them.  We, as young women, created our own special hype, it was not characterized by winning or by how many goals we beat teams by, but with the hearts we played with and the pride and respect we had gained for ourselves.