I was shocked in high school to learn that the women's tennis team my mom played on was called the C team. For years and years, she'd played tennis, and I couldn't understand how she could hold her head high if she couldn't make it beyond grade C.
My pre-teen, Adele, now plays on a C team in club soccer, the next step up from youth recreational leagues. From what I observe, A teams (premier) boast prodigies, the best trained, most athletic players in the state. B teams (elite) claim on their rosters extraordinary young athletes whose speed and skill with the ball are rare. And C teams (select) are not to be sneezed at either. The kids on these teams love the game and are developing into competitive players with impressive skill sets.
I see so much growth in the girls on the C team. Each one brings her own strengths to the group as a whole. One player can run down any opponent and cut her off; one can blast through the defense, booting the ball powerfully to the goal. Another can consistently clear the ball and send it up to the forwards; my own daughter can outwit her opponent with footwork and complete a smooth pass to her teammate.
I see the girls pushing themselves for the sake of the team, for something bigger than themselves. I see them cheering on each other's successes. Sometimes, I see them crushed and defeated. Occasionally, a game is awful, and they can't accomplish much of anything. After some games, they're convinced the referees were against them, or the other team cheated.
But other days, in the crisp fall air, they seem to rise up together, in a swell of skill and self-confidence and teamwork. They play important roles in a game that exists outside their everyday life, and they're temporarily removed from the constraints and requirements of being twelve-year-old girls. There are new rules--the game has its own logic and structure and beauty--and they rise up to the challenges and express all their potential. For one hour, they lay it all out on the grassy field for themselves and all the world to see.
