![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday was two teams from my club playing against each other, my team - the higher graded team - and a team that came up from the grade below just this year.
And five minutes before the game, I got asked to play for the other team.
I was asked by the coach to play for the other team, and the vice-captain was standing by and said that they picked my name out of a hat.
So I played for the other team, and I played well. The lower-ranked team still lost by, oh, 4 or 5 points, but they kept my regular team out of the goals in the second half, (but for a stroke, which was - ironically - caused by the woman who usually plays our goalie, and which was taken by a goalie who has little-to-no experience with strokes) and against my team, keeping them out of goals was quite a victory (and, truly, annoyed my team no end). And then afterwards, I raised the question of whether I was still on the team and was reassured by the Coach, the captain, and the vice-captain that I was.
Which I choose to believe.
I just don't know that I believe that my name was really picked out of a hat. And I dislike feeling like I've been lied to. If they wanted me to play for the other team, is it so hard to say, "S, the other team are down players, we're seconding you there because you and L share a position/so you get a full game/because you get on well with the players in the other team/all of the above"?
The person who insisted it was "out of a hat" (and therefore random) was the vice-captain, who is a lovely woman who's taken over most of the running of the team/liaising with the coach. I'm just not sure I trust her not to lie about this.
Call me a cynic, but I find myself wondering just how many people were in that hat. There were 14 people from my team ready to play yesterday: and a hat-pick just happens to select out one of two players who aren't good for much other than holding down one side of the field? That's about as 'random' as the fact that darker-skinned actors are consistently chosen to play the bad guys in movies.
I find myself wondering. I mean, really, if they picked, say, one of our Centre Halves out of a hat - L or N, both of whom are brilliant at taking the ball and running with it - probably the two of the best players in our comp - would they hand them over to the other team?
Frankly, I find it less insulting to my intelligence to be told that I was deliberately picked - and why - than that it was "random". Because maybe it was; but it seems a little too convenient to be random:
- someone who knows the players on the other team and is friendly with them? Check.
- someone who can pretty much only play one position, and shares that position with another woman who also only plays one position? Check.
- one of the less-skilled players on the team. Check.
It's like the bingo card for "who you'd pick to dump from a team with the least fuss". And I fill all the boxes.
So.
The positives: I'm still on the team. I've been reassured that I'm not going to get dropped, now or in the future when we get to the finals round. And I got unequivocally told by the captain of the other team that if I want to defect, I'd be more than welcome.
And, on the weekend, I learned that I can get past some of the players on my team that I didn't think I could: that I can be in possession of the ball and get it past our defenders - not every time, but one time in a handful, and maybe those one or two times will get it all the way down to the circle, even if we can't get a shot into the goals.
And five minutes before the game, I got asked to play for the other team.
I was asked by the coach to play for the other team, and the vice-captain was standing by and said that they picked my name out of a hat.
So I played for the other team, and I played well. The lower-ranked team still lost by, oh, 4 or 5 points, but they kept my regular team out of the goals in the second half, (but for a stroke, which was - ironically - caused by the woman who usually plays our goalie, and which was taken by a goalie who has little-to-no experience with strokes) and against my team, keeping them out of goals was quite a victory (and, truly, annoyed my team no end). And then afterwards, I raised the question of whether I was still on the team and was reassured by the Coach, the captain, and the vice-captain that I was.
Which I choose to believe.
I just don't know that I believe that my name was really picked out of a hat. And I dislike feeling like I've been lied to. If they wanted me to play for the other team, is it so hard to say, "S, the other team are down players, we're seconding you there because you and L share a position/so you get a full game/because you get on well with the players in the other team/all of the above"?
The person who insisted it was "out of a hat" (and therefore random) was the vice-captain, who is a lovely woman who's taken over most of the running of the team/liaising with the coach. I'm just not sure I trust her not to lie about this.
Call me a cynic, but I find myself wondering just how many people were in that hat. There were 14 people from my team ready to play yesterday: and a hat-pick just happens to select out one of two players who aren't good for much other than holding down one side of the field? That's about as 'random' as the fact that darker-skinned actors are consistently chosen to play the bad guys in movies.
I find myself wondering. I mean, really, if they picked, say, one of our Centre Halves out of a hat - L or N, both of whom are brilliant at taking the ball and running with it - probably the two of the best players in our comp - would they hand them over to the other team?
Frankly, I find it less insulting to my intelligence to be told that I was deliberately picked - and why - than that it was "random". Because maybe it was; but it seems a little too convenient to be random:
- someone who knows the players on the other team and is friendly with them? Check.
- someone who can pretty much only play one position, and shares that position with another woman who also only plays one position? Check.
- one of the less-skilled players on the team. Check.
It's like the bingo card for "who you'd pick to dump from a team with the least fuss". And I fill all the boxes.
So.
The positives: I'm still on the team. I've been reassured that I'm not going to get dropped, now or in the future when we get to the finals round. And I got unequivocally told by the captain of the other team that if I want to defect, I'd be more than welcome.
And, on the weekend, I learned that I can get past some of the players on my team that I didn't think I could: that I can be in possession of the ball and get it past our defenders - not every time, but one time in a handful, and maybe those one or two times will get it all the way down to the circle, even if we can't get a shot into the goals.