Soccer in Our 60s
I greatly appreciate the advantages in being an older volunteer, having time and financial resources to provide a secure base for choosing the activities from which to share our knowledge and experience. Most of the people that we encounter on the ranch are much younger than us, including the other volunteers who are primarily in their 20s. Allen and I find that this makes us feel younger – we have a hard time remembering that we are now in our late 60s!
One of the other great things about being older is that other
people tend to underestimate you and it can be easy to surprise them. This was
the case with my soccer “skills”. Nobody expected me to be very good, including
myself. I only signed up on the volunteer team so that they could get the
minimum number needed to form a team. As it turned out, they not only needed me
to play, but they also needed a goalie which I have played in the past (before
they were born!). The first game I played goalie first half and switched off
with another player. We won that game (see previous blog) and while I had to
block some shots, it was not as difficult as in the second game.
We played game 2 on Monday against Chelsea which we think
(hope!) is the toughest team in our league. Chelsea is composed primarily of
women in the university program, many of whom have been playing together for
years. For this game, I played goalie (or “portera”) the whole game and had to
block a lot of shots – with my hands, legs, feet, and entire body. I was not
entirely successful as the final score was Chelsea 9, Volunteers 1. However, I
got a lot of kudos, even from the referee.
Some of the teenage boys that we warmed up with just before
the game thought it was a joke when they were told that I would be goalie. They
kindly coached me during warm up, but I think they were as surprised as I was
by the number of goals I was able to block. One problem that I encountered was
the apparent lack of “offsides”. Normally offensive players cannot be between
the goalie and the last defender when the ball is played to them. The rule is in place to prevent teams from cherry-picking and
scoring easy goals. I didn’t feel bad about the first
three goals (scored in the first 5 minutes) because their best offender was
waiting in the offsides area for her team to pass it to her so she could go
one-on-one with me. I drew the line at diving for the ball
which is what I would have had to do with her corner shots. Our defense quickly figured it out and provided a lot
more help for me after that, but I still took on a lot of shots, particularly in
the second half when we were all getting tired.
A
second disadvantage for our team was the lack of our best offensive player who
could not make it to the game this week. It is likely that we would have lost anyway,
but I don´t think the score would have been so lopsided.
I was reminded after the game of one of the disadvantages of
being older; in addition to lacking the speed and stamina that I once had, my
body gets hurt more easily and it is more difficult to heal. I ended up with
enough pain in my right thumb to merit a trip to the clinic the following day
and a trip to the One World Surgery Center the day after for X-rays. Having both
of these medical facilities at the NPH Honduras site is a wonderful resource
for everyone on the ranch in addition to neighboring communities. The resulting
diagnosis was that I have rheumatoid arthritis in my thumb joint (determined by
X-ray) which was likely aggravated by playing goalie.
I am wearing a thumb splint until it feels better and am
getting a lot of admonishments of how I should take a break, not help with
chores, and maybe not play soccer as it is “peligroso” (dangerous) for me. I
don´t think that I am ready to give up on soccer yet, but I will probably wait
for the pain to recede before playing goalie and will use the thumb brace when
I do.
Allen is also playing soccer and is on the maintenance team.
They have more spare players than us so he only played part of the game and,
thus far, has not hurt himself. That´s a
good thing as he has had several injuries in his regular work, particularly to
one finger that seems to get a lot of injuries.
This time it was the same fingertip he injured in a wood chipper about 2
years ago. The new injury was the result
of being smashed between the end of 2 terra cotta roofing tiles as they slid down
a ramp from the roof he was working on.
It took a couple of stiches and a week or two of wearing a plastic bag over
the hand while showering. But thankfully
he is now able to wash the dishes and other things I’m not able to do with the
injured thumb.
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