These girls must want to play soccer

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The sun was shining. A slight breeze was blowing. It was a perfect August morning, and I was witnessing a beautiful sight.

The girls were standing in a circle at midfield, listening attentively to the man in the middle.

Some were smiling, nodding comfortably in agreement and understanding.

Others were frowning in quizzical fashion. Heads tilted to one side, they nervously twisted the corners of their shirttails.

That made it easy to tell the veterans from the newcomers.

Monday was opening day of tryouts for the Bangor High School girls soccer team, and Coach Jeff Ingalls had just called them together, from all sections of the field, with a stern but kind, “Hurry it up. Hurry it up. We haven’t got all day.”

He was ready to explain yet another drill, and he was on schedule to finish the two-hour tryout at 11 a.m.

Ingalls was demonstrating the proper way to kick. “Your toe must point to the ground.” More importantly, he was introducing the idea of control.

“You choose where you want it to go, and you choose when you want it to go,” he said with emphasis on the you, choose, where and when.

The girls were told to get a partner, “but threes are OK,” Ingalls said, and to spread out along the field to start kicking one of the 48 balls. They didn’t follow his instructions to the letter.

“Spread out. Spread out. Spread out down to the goal. Spread out,” he ordered.

They spread out. Down to the goal. Tweet! “Go ahead.”

As the girls worked the drill, he strolled among them. Watching, looking around at as many as he could take in at one time. He stopped to help one girl who, a few moments earlier, had been twisting her shirttail.

Ingalls has seen some of the new girls before, playing junior high ball. Others he worked with this summer in a 6-on-6 program in Brewer. But just because they played this summer does not mean they will play this fall.

This tryout is going to be difficult for Ingalls, more so for some of the girls.

He has already told them this will be the first time he will make cuts. The coach plans to take the best players, no matter what grade. Now they know it. By Friday they will be a team.

So many high hopes, so many hard decisions among the 14 seniors, 12 juniors, eight sophomores and 18 freshmen at the first day of tryouts.

The varsity team can have only 24 players for postseason play. Last year, Ingalls carried more during the season. Telling a few players they couldn’t suit up for playoffs was difficult, he said. He won’t do that again. And keeping a junior varsity squad of 30-35 taxes the coach who, through Monday, did not have an assistant.

Cutting is the hardest part of the job. “Sometimes a coach guesses wrong,” he said. “Michael Jordan was cut when he was a sophomore.”

But Ingalls believes that, in a sense, “coaches very rarely pick teams. Kids pick teams by deciding to be a player. If they want to play, they’re most likely to be on a field whenever they can be.”

He is concerned that some youngsters coming up “expect coaches and the field to develop the player.” It doesn’t happen, he said. A girl has to work at soccer to play soccer.

Tweet!

He motions them back to midfield. “Hurry up. Let’s go. Remember your partners.”

This time it is the proper throw-in technique. First stretch. Then throw. “Don’t hurt your back. Don’t hurt your thighs. Back with your partners.”

Tweet! “Go ahead.”

Again, he walks among them.

A halfback? Fullback? Goalie? He looks for quickness in every position.

“Some have the nose for the goal.” They will be the scorers.

Defenders will be girls who are tough and unafraid.

“The scorers go to the goal, but the defender has to stand there while the scorer comes at her. Seventy percent of the game is aggression.”

Eleven o’clock approaches.

He calls them together for a final conditioning drill. They form lines in front of the goal.

“Sprint to midfield, stop and rest, then sprint to the end.”

Down, back; down, back. I hear birds chirp.

“This time, sprint halfway, then jog halfway.”

Down, back; down, back.

The cheeks are red;, the pace slows. I hear a new sound.

Tromp. Tromp. Tromp.

Tired legs make heavy feet. Once running lightly on toes with a spring in each step, the feet slowly, methodically pound the ground.

Tweet! The coach motions them to the bleachers.

He faces the girls who hope to wear the uniforms of the Bangor Rams.

“It will be a long week,” he tells them. “Drink lots of fluids, get plenty of rest, and eat good foods.”