"Beauty confronts us with the requirement that we place ourselves among...the redeemers, the leaders in the protection of life. Once you have seen the bush on fire, you are not going to get out of the assignment unless you close your eyes to the beauty.... [You] either have to close your eyes or go back to Egypt and set the people free." - Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, "Rising to the Challenge of Our Times"

Sunday, April 29, 2007

60 minutes

After our sound but educational loss (0 to 40 - something, 43 or 46 I think) a coach pointed out that high school and college boys don't play football for a full hour. Just us and the NFL. Of course the 60 minutes of time clock equals at least two hours with time outs and halftime and all the other bits that work into it.

Wow.

I think I was so overwhelmed by the number of people on the field, being accustomed to running into imaginary targets, that it was hard to remember some of the things I'd actually practiced. The pace of it made my head spin. My personal high points of the game were when I played some defense in the second half / last quarter and got knocked down a couple times by Corvallis' blockers for their runningback. I say high points because I knew that at least I was in the right place and moving in the right direction for them to bother knocking me down. I felt like I was really playing when that happened. And hopefully next time I'll remember that I'm supposed to hit the blockers before they hit me.

More than anything I am blown away by the grit of my comrades. I went in on defense because the cornerback had also been playing receiver and tailback most of the game and she was exhausted.

We need all our players to come to practice, all the time, so that we can keep learning real football instead of pantomime, and I think we'll make great progress.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Emily, I found your blog from Blogher. I'm doing an article on women's fitness, and am looking to interview women who participate in out of the ordinary fitness. If you are interested, please email me.

limes said...

Good first go! I am telling everyone that my sister plays football, and it makes me seem especially cool, just by being your sister.

Alice said...

I haven't been telling anyone that my sister plays football... I have felt extra cool because I'm your sister though...

I'll have to start telling people too...