By Izzy Schmidt
(Photo by Izzy Schmidt)
Playing soccer with guys is like… well it’s like brushing your teeth without toothpaste, like changing a tire without a jack, like cutting your hair with plastic scissors. It’s challenging. Starting on April 21 and continuing until the championship game on May 7, a small co-ed soccer league will have a game a few times a week with five teams composed of six players each on a 15×25 foot field.
Playing co-ed is more intense. The passes get harder, the pace is faster, and it’s okay to play more aggressively. I don’t have to worry whether or not I’ll hurt the other guy players like I would if they were girls. We have our own styles. Girls seem to play with more passing and technique, whereas guys play with sprints and fakeouts. It’s always reassuring to know that even if your pass is a little off, the guy player can run fast enough to retrieve it.
When you put them together, it’s like this insane game of skill and speed. No one wants to lose to the other gender. There’s no mercy. When you’re on a team with a combination of guys and girls, especially in a 20-minute half, it can get a little frustrating because guys are ball hogs. They all want the shot. Passes from them are rare, and when they do happen, it’s usually to a fellow guy.
On the upside, when a girl scores a goal in these games, it’s worth two points and for guys, it’s one. We use this as motivation to get them to pass.
Girls have our own faults as well. Sometimes during a game, we get almost too focused. These co-ed, six on six games are supposed to be for fun, but sometimes we get a little too focused on winning and a little less focused on having fun. That’s where the guys come in handy.
During warm-up, there are the girls, usually passing and practicing juggling, and the guys, wrestling over the ball, pushing each other for a shot to the crossbar, and laughing their heads off. It’s nice to have them there to relax us a little more, and we help them focus on the game as well. It’s a great balance.
Playing on the co-ed league is really entertaining. My team is stupendous, and it’s pretty cool to play with a bunch of experienced boys and a few cheery girls. There’s not a second that we aren’t laughing or cheering each other on. They’re helping me improve as a player, and we’re all getting closer. I like that we can all come together to just play.
Girls and guys playing a sport together is a hard thing to come by, but when it happens, it’s something of which to take advantage. No matter who you get stuck with as teammates, all the frustration, or even the outcome of the game- playing co-ed isn’t like anything else, and it’s something all players should definitely try.
