I look forward to weekends. Apart from the two day break from the usual hustle and bustle of school and other work, I get to relax with friends, watch a movie, go on a picnic or an outing. A weekend is not complete though without some football. The local football scene is awash with bickering which makes local football a total displeasure. I enjoy watching the English premier league which presents the highest standards of the game. It is sad though, that the only efforts I have ever made to play football were when I was in my lower primary school and I played as a striker. It was not the easiest of affairs since the ground we used as a football pitch was dotted with stones and playing was a hard task. I lost a nail in my efforts and my parents and I decided that football was not going to be an activity I would engage in the future. I therefore hung my boots very early in life and shifted to watching others play the game. I grew oblivious of other sports as a result and to date, apart from football, I watch very few other sports with interest.
I know very little about hockey, I must admit hence. Apart from the fact that the game is played by human beings and that they try and knock a ball around a pitch with some sticks and score goals, there is very little else that I know about the game. Well, this changed a few days ago after I watched sports news on a local news channel. The headline was that the Daystar University’s hockey teams-ladies and men, had taken home a combined tally of goals amounting to thirty. It never occurred to me first, how big a drubbing that was until I checked on the internet on how scores are counted in hockey. I initially thought, ‘typical cricket loss’ but then I figured out that goals can only be calculated in tallies of one. Hockey is just like football with the difference being in the means that they use to score and the kind of ball that is used among few other differences. I could not in all honesty understand why our hockey team could not have scored even a single goal at least to save face. I mean, doesn’t hockey have penalties?
Out of curiosity I talked to a close friend in the team and got to understand-to some extent, what had led to the thrashing. The team has no coach, no pitch and motivation is always at rock-bottom. Nothing new to hear really. It’s been the same story over and over again when Daystar teams lose. However, the team’s definition of resilience and determination is something out of this world I must say. To go on and play without training and expect to win especially against teams that have done the direct opposite is to say the least, a herculean task. The blame cannot be placed entirely on the team, I must concede. The university sadly has done very little to ensure that these ladies and gentlemen that play this game are able to win any of the matches they play. These players need a coach and a pitch. If they are expected not to make the wrong headline news, there is need for them to be taken seriously. Perhaps it is about time we shifted goalposts to avoid conceding such many goals without any response. (587)
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