As some may know (unsure if I mentioned it in the past), I play co-ed soccer. Outdoor in the summer and of course indoor in the winter. Early January we had a typical game against a better team. We were down 4-0 and I was standing in front of the net with my back to the goalie. Early in the second half, my teammate Kris took a low shot from about 30 feet out. The ball was coming straight for my legs, so I hopped to my left to avoid blocking the shot. Upon landing, my left foot planted with my cleats sticking into the field. My left knee buckled and I fell to the ground clutching my knee. I heard cheering and the ref's whistle. Not realizing that I was hurt, one of my opponents jokingly said "you're not getting credit for that goal". I had apparently screened the goalie enough, that he couldn't react to the shot resulting in a goal. I hopped off to our bench and held my knee tightly for a bit until someone could get me some ice. I iced it a bit, then walked the sideline to test it out. The more I walked, the more the pain subsided. My knee felt better and I decided to re-enter the game. I ended up scoring our second goal with a sweeping shot off a rebound while sliding to the ground. We lost that game 5-2.
I didn't have any sports until the following week, so I rested my knee, running inclusive. Sunday my Sticks team started co-ed ball hockey consolation playoffs and had a double header in round robin play. Late in the first period, I was battling someone for position in front of the opposing goal and my knee buckled a bit. It hurt, but wasn't painful. I knew it wasn't bad, but I couldn't play on it and decided to sit the rest of the game. I sat and watched our team defeat the 3rd Street Saints with 3-1 and tie 1-1 in the 2nd game. As a result, our team made it to the consolation finals to be played the following week. I opted to sit out my soccer game for that evening as well.
I had booked an appointment to see a sports doctor that week at Legacy. After examining my knee, he didn't see anything too serious with it. He said I can continue playing sports, but to monitor it. He wanted to see me in a couple weeks for a follow up. I took it easy all week to rest it before our finals. We were again matched up with the 3rd Street Saints as we finished 1 and 2 in the round robin. We fell 2-0 in the first 2 periods, but we didn't panic. Early in the 3rd, my teammate Frosty (Jason), took a long shot, which hit the goalie's stick, bounced over and went in. With under 2 minutes left, one of the opposing guys took a hooking penalty. We pulled our goalie, Dave, with about a minute left, giving us a 5-3 advantage. Their strategy was to pin the ball against the boards in their zone, to run out the clock. Having tried to battle along the boards earlier, I wasn't too confident with my knee, so I let my teammates battle behind, to the left of the net. One of my teammates kicked the ball lose and I snuck in there and pulled it out. I curled out around a defender to the bottom of the circle and snapped a low shot that found the back of the net with 3 seconds left. OT went scoreless and we had our first shootout. For some reason my teammates consider me a leader on the team and wanted me to choose our shooters for the shootout, 2 guys, 2 girls. I suck at breakaways, so I excluded myself and chose Frosty, Simon, Jenn with Roni volunteering for the 4th. Saints shot first and Dave made an incredible stick save, reach back for the ball. Frosty crafted a nice goal to put us up 1. No one else scored the rest of the way, so Jenn didn't even have to take the final shot. Victory! We even won a trophy which Dave brought with him everywhere, including to bed (there's even photographic evidence).
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| Top - Ken, Frosty, Simon, Fab, Jenn, Steph, Roni Bottom - Jim (former backup goalie), Steve, Dave, Me Missing - Sandra, Carolyn, Derek and various spares throughout the season, notably John and Kris |
