This year my son’s soccer team made it to the season soccer tournaments again.  It was a tough year for his team, and they ended the season right in the middle, with an equal number of wins and losses.  In the tournament, his team as the lowest seed, and that meant that they had to play the 1st seed (the best) team.  Now normally, you would think that such a low seeded team wouldn’t have a chance, especially since they are playing the top team first, but surprisingly they do.

The reasons we are optimistic is because they won their last three out of four games, really improving at the end of this season.  So while my son’s team is still the underdogs, they are very strong underdogs (both figuratively and physically in strength).  Okay, the game is starting…

Results of the First Game

It was like a dream come true, the score was 1 – 0, with my son’s team losing.  Then with less than thirty seconds, my son taps the ball in when there was a scramble for the ball in the opponent’s goal.  All his teammates were screaming and high-fiving him!  It was one of those moments in life that he will never forget (or at least I won’t).

Results of the final game for the Championship

In a grueling match, the final game for the championship was lost, barely. The final score was 1 – 0, this just shows how evenly each of the top four teams really were.  In the final two minutes, through a combination of skill (or luck), one of the best players on the other team hooked a high kick into the upper left corner of the goal post.  It was a beautiful kick and perfectly executed.  We were all sad, but that’s the way games go, sometimes miracle kicks like that land and win the game.  Personally, I was happy for the other team because they gave it their all and did a great job.  Yeah, I wish my son’s team won, but his team seemed happy being finalists (besides, they have already won a championship in the past).

Why this was Tournament was Special

The game was special because the previous superstars that were on my son’s team quit soccer or to a different organization.  Since the team depended on those two key players, we only won one game last season, and that was the very last game to boot.  It was disheartening after winning the championship the three seasons when the superstars were on the team.

So that fact that all the players have improved with the absense of any superstars on the team is a testament to how players all gain when the goal isn’t to pass the ball to one or two key players and then depending on them to do all of the scoring.  I have a feeling next year will be even more impressive than this year.

I think life is like this too.  If you have superstars dictating the show, you remain untested because you learn to depend on those particular superstars in life.  While this isn’t necessarily a horrible thing, it’s a bit bitter because you remain untested, not knowing how high you can fly.

What do you think?  Would you rather have a team with a few superstars and depend on them for everything, or would you rather keep continuously growing and improving your own game in life?

Personally, I want to keep reaching…

MR