Chapter 40

“I must say,” Samantha was standing over him as he bent close to the ground, his breath coming rapidly. “You’re in much better shape than even I figured.”

“Thanks.” He said with a slight wheeze. Dan wasn’t really appreciative of that comment. For the last thirty minutes or so of conditioning, he’d been going all out. And in doing so, he’d quickly been burning through his stamina as he pushed himself to see just how fast he was, just how agile he could be, and so on. He’d made the other freshman look like they were hadn’t worked out a day in their lives before, but at what cost?

It was time to actually start with some soccer, and his stamina was under 50. He’d pushed himself to the point of penalizing himself. And for what? Just to show up the coach? Dan realized then and there that he’d been beaten. The coach had planned it. Kudos to her. She’d done what she was supposed to, and pushed him into pushing himself. As angry as that made him, he actually had to admit, it was admirable.

Then again, he was a lot more exhausted than he’d prefer to be, for the part of practice he’d actually come for.

“Alright, this drill is simple.” She pointed towards the field. As they’d been finishing up their last set of conditioning, which had been a rather long Indian race around all the soccer fields of the complex, she’d been setting up cones on the field. Samantha had sectioned the field off into 8 grids, and within each grid, there were cones set up to simulate small goals.

“One on one, winner stays, loser moves down a notch. I’ll be at the top, take me down if you can. If you fail out of the game, you have to do a lap around the field, before you can get back in line.” She called off a couple of names then, and began sending players to the differing sets of cones.

“Meadows.” She called his name. “Show me just how much you love soccer. I’ll be waiting at the top for you.” She laughed as she walked towards the first position, to stand across from the first player she’d called. “You’ll start at the very bottom.”

Dan had already heard that once before this week. It reminded him too much of how Ben had treated him. The difference though, was Samantha’s didn’t seem to be in a mean or nasty way. She was legitimately pushing him, to better himself. Ben had been doing it to haze him. As Dan jogged to the last set of cones, eyeing the boy across from him, he realized that so far, his interactions with the soccer team, at the very least the coach, was a lot more pleasant than his interactions with most of the tennis team.

“Good luck.” Dan said to his opponent.

“First to five wins. Loser starts with the ball. Initial start on my whistle.” Samantha called out to the players. Each set of cones indeed had a soccer ball in the middle, and Dan noticed all the players were standing back by their respective cone set goals. Samantha stepped back to her position and rose her whistle calmly to her lips. As she prepared to blow, Dan couldn’t help but feel his excitement raise.

Unfortunately, he was so focused on her, that when she did blow the whistle, he forgot to move initially. His opponent however, who’d done this drill before it seemed, wasted no time, rushing forward rapidly towards the soccer ball.

Dan cursed himself, but didn’t fret. The goal behind him was only about a five-foot expanse, while the grid Samantha had set up for the activity had to be roughly thirty feet. Meaning even as the other player rushed towards the ball, Dan had plenty of space between him and his opponent. And he highly doubted the player was going to score a goal right off the bat.

“Let’s do this.” Dan muttered under his breath as he moved casually towards his opponent. It wouldn’t do to rush towards him, not now. Instead, while making sure he kept himself between his opponent and the goal, he began closing the distance between the two.

His opponent, seemed less cautious. The moment he reached the ball he rushed forward, dribbling it rapidly in a straight line towards Dan, and the goal. It seemed the player was quite intent on just blowing past Dan for the first goal.

Dan grinned at the play. Judging by how far the kid hit the ball with each dribble, he wasn’t all that experienced. He was putting way too much distance between himself and the ball with each hit. Dan prepared himself, watching carefully, his eyes on the player. One thing that had been taught to him early on was the fact that a player couldn’t go anywhere without their chest. Meaning as long as you kept that in your line of sight, you could figure where they were going.

Of course, he wasn’t expecting the guy to do anything tricky. Not right away. Hell, Dan felt slightly insulted as the kid continued moving towards him. He was an unknown. A brand-new player on the field, and yet this freshman wasn’t showing Dan a single ounce of respect for the unknown potential skill level.

Dan of course, wasn’t about to let that fly. Especially not after all of Samantah’s jabbing. Dan’s eyes focused, and the moment he was waiting for came an instant later. Just as the kid neared him, just as expected, he hit the ball a little too hard to the side. It was clear from his body language ahead of time he was going to try and pass Dan on the right side, and as the ball grew in distance between the random player and Dan, Dan took action.

With skills gained over countless hours of practice, Dan’s body darted to the right. He caught the ball with the outside of his right foot, sending it roughly 45 degrees out and to his right, giving him distance between the other player and himself. Then, with his body between the player and the ball, Dan caught the soccer ball with the inside of his right foot, straightening it out and shooting it forward a good distance. Then he dug in and took off, chasing after it, regaining control of it in a second as he blew past the other player. A moment later, he had his first goal, before the other player could even react. All around him, the other players, who’d been cheering for their buddy, had gone silent. Immediately, all eyes were on Dan, and he had to admit, it felt good. After all, Soccer was his first love.

Soccer Traits Unlocked

Stealing

Trapping

Dribbling

Shooting

Precision

And just like that, Dan’s euphoria grew even more. Though, he knew he had to wait until he finished this little match before he could take a moment to check out his skills. That being said, judging by how his opponent had reacted just a moment before, Dan was going to have no problem taking him down. He could already taste victory, and Dan would be lying if he wasn’t looking forward to his one on one with Samantha.