"No, Christy, don't do it...
you've never played goalie before!"
By John Knutson
Our community has a fall soccer recreational program that is co-ed. I once had a team that didn't have a bonified goalie and would be forced to strong-arm players to play goalie for a half, then I would allow them to tell me where they wanted to play next. On one particular game day I went through my ritual of asking "Who wants to play goalie this half?" Receiving no affirmative responses...even from the boys who would turn their heads away pretending they didn't hear me...I asked again, and then said, "No one gets a position until we find a goalie. With even the biggest, toughest boys on the team...no takers. Then, out of the blue one of the girls on the team says..."I'll do it!" I said, "Great, thanks for volunteering." As the girls mother saw who it was that volunteered, she screamed..."No, Christy, don't do it, you've never played goalie before!" She said again that she'd like to, so we put the goalie jersey on her, sent her out on the field and she stopped several shots...some of which were spectacular, and a few that were just plain lucky. Either way, she shut out the team the whole second half of the game. Our team won that day...but the important thing was that an average female player on a coed team gained so much confidence from that single experience that I think it changed not only the way she and her parents thought about soccer, but also about taking chances in life. It's been terrific to see her ever since that fateful day. She's always been a terrific kid, it's just that now she's much more confident and self-assured.
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