I had the great privilege of attending my seventeen year old grandson’s soccer game tonight. It was freezing and of course there was that constant lovely breeze. I was well prepared with big blanket on the chair, four layers of shirt, sweater, thick knee socks and what I call my big girl shoes. I use these whenever I need thick knee highs to keep warm. They have a nonslip tread also, good for snow. Of course none of my shoes actually wear out and my feet don’t really feel them, so they don’t have to be high quality. But I liked the look of these. You get the idea, it was cold. We had big scarves and blankets. There were five of us.
We went up the three tiered ramp to the handicapped area. My family sat on the benches next to me. We saw our star doing everything he could to help the goalie keep the ball out of the net. We have a great goalie, by the way. Our star is a smaller wiry guy. He’s played soccer for years and he is fast. Most of the team was not very experienced but did their best. Lost seven to zero. In an 80 minute game, at the last five minutes the other coach put in their second string and we just kept hoping for one goal, but no.
The other team was from Sheridan, WY, quite a ways away. As the game went on we kept hearing loud guffaws, rude remarks, and every good move on the Sheridan team was loudly “appreciated”. I said to my daughter that those kids are being obnoxious. We weren’t that bad to be ridiculed. The announcer told everyone before the game started that we should respect each other, etc. They got louder and louder.
The worst was the arrogant attitude, mocking, etc from the other players. We had white uniforms, but younger and smaller players. When the other team has some tall guys with mustaches and beards, it makes you wonder. Every play it seemed our guy was surrounded by five big blue guys. The referee gave a couple of penalty cards, kicked one guy off the field, and gave one a talking to on the field. At these reprisals the crowd behind us became louder with their remarks. My then feisty ten year old granddaughter who has played soccer since three, started cheering for our team, loudly. I had to join in. If our team was making a good play we shouted out great job, (name) etc. but we never criticized the Sheridan team.
However if I could I would have liked to use my big girl shoes to kick some butt! Sorry, my grandmother is showing. I did tell the fourteen year old the people behind us were —. But I was getting angry when I found out they weren’t kids making that noise, they were the parents. I couldn’t believe it! Parents? No wonder their team had obnoxious behavior. They came by it naturally.
Here in Cheyenne, there are three major high schools. Two are where the white, well to do kids go and our family goes to the third. It’s a beautiful new school, but so are the kids. There is disparity in the schools and it shows in nights like this. We only have three seasoned players on our team. Tomorrow we play an even stronger team. I wonder what those parents will be like? I also wonder if this attitude is going to prevail with our new leader and his attitudes and tweets!
This is our guy, #4, at a game last year.
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The Bag Lady 
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