Playing Football for Subroto Cup and SGFI
The football camps started with the advent of the new academic year. The team had already been informed of the upcoming district tournament however, most of the players were irregular with their attendance. Since it was a new team and field for me, it took me some time to adjust and coordinate with my new team. During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required
During the morning training sessions, when I cribbed about people not turning up for practices, I realised that circumstances will hardly ever adjust themselves according to my needs and that to work in a team, we needed to not just criticise but to listen and learn to adjust according to everyone’s requirements. Meanwhile, the real problem was that the position that I originally played already had players in place and that there was another position that required to be filled. Not wanting to mess up the team’s general rhythm, I volunteered to play at a position I had never played before. I was assigned to play as the main defence. The first task was to learn to coordinate with everyone on the team. I realised that I had to develop overall as a player and not only brush up my football skills. The position came with a lot of responsibility that I had to undertake.
Guiding the team to ideal locations take shots from was one of those. I learnt many better ways of coordination with the team and being a defender only helped me to enhance my football skills. During the days following up to the state tournament, the 11th Grade along with the rest of the team made it a point to come regularly for the morning training sessions no matter what. There were times when some of us weren’t allowed to board the early bus and other times when there was too much workload however we overcame all those challenges together as a team. The best part of working collaboratively was that all the required permissions were obtained easily when the entire team went to the coordinators as one voice.
Working with the team also taught us how to be selfless, courageous and to not get disheartened on small losses. Playing football also made me realise the code of conduct I need to maintain at a personal level. It taught me the kind of discipline that is required to a play a sport ethically. However, we came across a dilemma when we were faced by a team of very young girls playing for U-17. We didn’t know whether we were supposed to play an easy game or play tough to secure our positions for the state championship. The entire team unanimously decided to go with their gut and play at a certain level that the opponent team would benefit out of the match however not play rough at all because we realised that winning by defeating and probably injuring those little girls wouldn’t be winning at all. We played ethically and got selected for the state tournament and stood as runners up there.
