Friday, October 15, 2004
I got legs, and I knows how to use ‘em
For what, you ask? For kicking ass at the Philippine Science High School Intrams, baby, yeah! And of course, for the two events I participated in: cheerdancing (laugh all you want, but YES, I did it!) and soccer. It was a hell of a lot of fun, too! But not without a price, however...

Injuries sustained by yours truly:

-an aching right arm (from slipping down the stairs sa harap ng dorm namin on my way to f**king cheerdancing practice. Perfect timing, no?)
-a HUGE (like four to five inches wide) black bruise on my lower back (same reason as above)
-a bruise on the side of my left leg (I got kicked by some dimwit girl while I was playing soccer)
-a bruise on my right shin (yep, soccer game again, but a different one this time)

As painful (literally) as this price was, it sure was worth it, because this was the best intrams event ever! No stupid and useless game of tug-of-war here, this time I was a cheerdancer-slash-soccer player! For the first time ever, I actually felt like I was of some importance to our team. And man, it was...asteeg! Let's break it down:


Team Orange

This is our team, obviously. Unlike in La Salle Zobel, where all the batches have their own intramurals, Pisay has only one intrams event for the entire school. So, we get split into houses/teams, with one section per level representing. There are eight houses all in all: Light Blue, Navy Blue, Green, Red, Purple, Yellow, Gray, and our house, Orange. The sections that compose Team Orange are:

First Year - Opal (my section!)
Second Year - Champaca (if first year sections are named after precious stones, sophomore sections are named after flowers)
Third Year - Potassium (third year sections are named after elements...)
Fourth Year - Tau (fourth year sections are named after parts of an atom, like Photon, Electron, Charm, Truth, Graviton, Muon and Gluon)


Cheerdancing

Believe it or not, I've always wanted to join the dance presentations in school, but what held me back was the fear of looking like a jiggling blob while all the other dancers did their thing with such marvelous and splendid grace, poise, and elan. But I thought, "Hell, I only got one life to live!" and I signed myself up for cheerdancing anyway. Couldn't be too bad, right?

Wrong. We had, like, only TWO DAYS to practice, and it was a lot harder than I'd expected. After all, this was cheerdancing, not modern dance (meaning stunts are allowed, involved and crucial for an impressive performance. Yikes!). And since the seniors were the ones choreographing, the dance was damn hard to execute, especially because the song was at an insanely fast tempo. I was thisclose to backing out, and I would've, too, but I wasn’t allowed to quit because if I did, our cheerdancing team wouldn't be able to meet the minimum of twenty-five members (there were exactly 25 of us on the team, so obviously we'd have been a member short---and disqualified---if I backed out). So, with no other choice, I stuck to the team and practiced like crazy the night before the presentation to at least avoid looking like an idiot in front of the entire student body.

And I'm glad I did. I finally got the dance down pat and whether or not I made a fool out of myself, the important thing is that I had fun (and lots of it!). On the morning of the presentation, I actually slipped and fell down the steps in front of the girls' dormitory on my way to practice for the dance! But despite an injured right arm and an aching and bruised lower back, I braved these injuries and did the dance anyway, and wouldn't you know it, our house won a cool third place in the cheerdancing competition! Not bad, huh? =)


Soccer

I would rather have not joined any event at all, but see, everyone in our section had to sign up for at least one event for the intramurals, and there were four sports to choose from: basketball (one event for girls, one for boys), volleyball (again, one for girls and one for boys), swimming (mixed) and soccer (it's mixed too: girls play the first half of the game, boys play the second). Although I'm a tall gal (I stand at 5'9"), I know squat about basketball, so I wasn't joining that. Neither was I joining volleyball 'cause I have this fear of getting hit in the face by a speeding volleyball. Don't even ask me about swimming. Now, soccer---well, girls' soccer, anyway---didn’t involve too many flying balls, and the rules weren't all too complicated unlike basketball. So by order of elimination, I signed up for soccer.

Me being lazy and sports-hating me, I picked to play the position on the soccer team that involved the least running around and chasing the ball: I chose to be a right side defensive. As in sa may kanang gilid ng field malapit sa goal namin. I just stood around most of the time while the ball was being kicked around on the other end of the field (that's all defense players do, really)---in fact, I was able to nonchalantly bend down and tie my shoelace while the game was going on, and I didn't miss a thing! When the ball did reach my area, however, I kicked that damn ball as hard as I could and made sure it stayed on the other end of the field where it should be, because [sarcasm]no ball oughta ruin the fun of blankly standing around in the corner of the field![/sarcasm]

Interestingly enough, I got noticed even though I only played right side defensive. Arienne was saying na ako daw yung pinakamalakas sumipa sa girls team (naks!) and Ian said that I could beat the opposing team with my strong kicks that can send the ball a-flyin’! Cool!

That was the first day (not to mention the first-ever official soccer game that I ever played), and our team kicked the asses of the opponents, Team Purple, beating them 2-0. Second day, we played against Team Red. Kuya Albert, who was a member of the Pisay soccer varsity and a member of the Philippine National Soccer Team, was our team captain, and apparently trusted my ability enough to assign me as defensive midfielder (read: more important than my previous position). This means that I still defend the ball and stop the team from scoring, only this time I'm right smack in the middle of the entire team (behind me are all the defense players, and in front of me are the offense midfielders and the strikers/forwards). Sabi ni Kuya Albert na importante daw yung role ko, 'cause I act as the "abdominals" of the team (gitnang-gitna ng team, in short). Anyway, I did my job (which is standing around in the middle of the field---joke!) as best I could, blocking the ball with my feet, legs or sometimes my knees (although blocking a speeding ball with my knee hurt like hell) and sending it over to the other side, and we defeated Team Red 1-0.

Being in a more important position now, mas napapansin ako, and more people complimented me on my performance, a significant one being from my classmate from LSGH, Leo (I call him Leo-san---it's a sign of respect). Leo-san hardly (I daresay never) compliments anybody, most of the time he's insulting 'em. So it was really something to hear good stuff from him, especially since he was criticizing my kicks while we were practicing for our first game ("yung instep nga yung gamitin mo, wag yung toes!!").

*me and Arienne are leaving the soccer field when Leo-san joins us*
Leo-san: Magaling ka pala mag-soccer, ah.
*slight pause while I try to process in my mind what Leo-san just said*
Me (surprised): Is that sarcasm, or do you really mean that?
Leo-san: Hinde, magaling ka nga.
Me: Asteeg!

And getting the thumbs-up from our own team captain Kuya Albert was cool, too. =)

Me: Kuya Albert, am I playing defensive mid again?
Kuya Albert: Yeah. By the way, you did a good job yesterday.
Me: Thank you.
*I walk away feeling pretty triumphant*

Anyway, we beat Team Light Blue the next day (it ended 0-0, but we bested them in the post-game shoot-out), but it pains me to say that our winning streak ended there. Team Orange lost to Team Navy Blue in the semi-finals. It ended 1-1 (asar nga eh, 'coz while our team scored a legit goal thanks to my teammate Geneve, they only got their point because of a goddamn penalty kick), and we lost the f***ing shoot-out. Poor Kuya Albert was kneeling down in the middle of the field with his head in his hands, crying like hell as the rest of the team stood around him, telling him that it was okay and that it's just a game. I left at once because if I stayed there any longer I would've started crying myself.

Eventually, Team Red became the champs for soccer. I was royally pissed when I found out, because natalo na namin sila eh! If we did it once, we could do it again. Oh well, a loss is a loss. Congrats to Team Red for winning. Besides, kahit talo kami, I've found a new sport to love! I had the time of my life playing soccer, and from now on, Pisay students can expect to find me in the field after school jogging around the track or practicing drills and tricks with my soccer ball, since I plan to try out for soccer varsity next year! :D


Conclusion (finally)

Even though Team Orange didn't win any championship (the closest we came to it was second place at girls' basketball), I felt I sort of gained something through this whole experience. Let’s enumerate, shall we?

Personal gains from the Pisay Intrams thing:

-Having a blast while cheerdancing, no matter how stupid I looked. Yeah, I finally did it! Carpe diem!
-For the first time in my life, nakatikim na ako ng pilipit (it's this sort of kakanin dessert thing), and I subsequently got addicted! LOL XD
-Kahit isang week lang, I got more time to ogle my crush (heeheehee)
-Hearing various people (even those na hindi ko kilala) say that I'm good at soccer. Compliments like that really make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. =)
-Discovering my love for playing soccer (who would've thought that a couch potato like me would actually like a sport? Himala!)

Well, that wraps it up for this week. Sucks that it’s back to regular classes next week, but hey, that's life. I gotta go now, there's a Technology Preparation project I have to accomplish.

This is Jeanne Cruz, signing out. Till next time, ciao!
JC got bored @ 10:47 AM

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