Writer tries her foot at soccer

Upon hearing that there was a winter sports challenge this issue for newspaper, I enthusiastically signed up, but that excitement only lasted a brief moment. Later that day, when I found out that my winter sport challenge was for soccer, excitement quickly turned into panic. 

I tried to recall the times I “played” soccer in middle school, hoping to revive some lost memories of the sport. The last time I ever touched a soccer ball was during eighth-grade PE, and I spent more time jogging aimlessly on grass than actually “playing.” 

For the soccer challenge, I had to first take the pre-test, which involved being timed doing various challenges, such as dribbling. Then, a varsity soccer player coached me to help improve my time. Finally, I took the test again. 

For the pre-test, I was told to dribble through cones, juggle 10 times and hit the crossbar from 30 yards away.

My first question was, “What is a crossbar?” My second was “Do I have to do this?” 

As I walked back to the 30-yard line to practice for the pre-test, the goal seemed to be miles away. 

On my first attempt (if it can be called an attempt), the ball barely rose off the ground and I watched it slowly roll toward the goal and stop well before the goal line. Falcon sports editor Jay Mulye was probably thinking the same thing as me: I will never be able to hit the crossbar from 30 yards away. 

Jay moved me up to the 18-yard line and I attempted to hit the crossbar again. This time my attempt was much more successful. It turned out to be beginner’s luck, though. 

My next few tries were utter failures as the balls were going left and right, so I eventually got disqualified from the crossbar challenge. Instead of the crossbar challenge, I now had to do the side-netting challenge, which required me to kick the ball into the side net of the goal from 18 yards away. 

The side-netting challenge went much more smoothly, so we decided to begin the pre-test for real. The timer started and I began to dribble the ball through the cones, alternating right and left foot, which I later learned was a big mistake because the alternating foot significantly slowed me down. 

Then I attempted to juggle. Every time I tried, the ball went flying away from me. Eventually after about a dozen tries, I got disqualified from that challenge too. 

I finally moved on to my last challenge, side-netting, which was surprisingly smooth as I got it on my second attempt. My total time, without juggling, came out to be one minute and 51 seconds.

My friend, varsity center defender Anisha Nagarajan, came to the rescue and coached me after the pre-test. She gave pointers, especially for dribbling. She told me to use one foot, which is much faster. 

When I went back for my final test, the dribbling section went much better because instead of trying to tap the ball diagonally, I tapped it forward and sideways. I was ready to conquer juggling; however, I got disqualified again after numerous tries, but this time I reached four juggles in a row. Although I failed at juggling, I aced side-netting, achieving it on my first attempt. 

My total time, not including juggling, was 32 seconds, which was over a minute improvement. I owe much of my success to my friend Anisha for giving me good advice, especially on dribbling, which cut down my time the most. After this challenge, I truly realized how difficult soccer is and how much skill is required, even for seemingly simple tasks, such as dribbling.