I’m not nervous, Jaya reminded herself as she dribbled down the field.
Of course she was nervous. She wanted it all from this weekend for prospective college athletes: the scholarship, Conscia University blue and white hoodies, and access to the engineering labs so badly that the yearning kept her up at night. Now that she was on the campus grounds, she felt an ache. Her fear of inadequacy expanded.
As she wrestled with each demonic thought that fretted over her fear of somehow failing, Jaya turned to a mantra she’d found in second-grade soccer.
Inhale. Her former coach’s voice washed over her. She took a breath: the wind stung her nostrils. Feel the ball nestle in the insole of one foot. She crept a foot around the soccer ball. Nudge it under the other foot. What had she been worried about, again? Exhale. Jaya found calm again, until a whistle jarred her.
Coach Ladon, Conscia’s sharp-eyed soccer coach, beckoned the cohort of students to approach the bleachers.
“Welcome to Conscia’s soccer weekend. Because I love baptisms by fire, we’ll start today with the eleven of you . . . . drumroll please . . .”
The women in blue and white behind her dutifully banged on their knees. Jaya watched their sleek high ponytails gleam in the weak sunshine and felt envy and that all-consuming want sweep through her.
“. . . Scrimmaging with Conscia’s soccer team!” she finished with a vicious grin. “These ladies could be your teammates next year, so I want to see how well you can analyze and, yes, overcome their strengths.”
Jaya gulped. Scrimmage against a herd of Glamazon Division 1 athletes? The college girls had so many advantages: their height, their agility, their intensity.
Twenty minutes and two scores for Conscia later, she stopped to breathe, watching a college girl pass to her teammate. The pair seemed to mirror each other in movement, with one gearing up for a kick as the other moved to an open area to receive the pass.
They were so in sync . . . but Jaya had seen such teams before. She knew how to play this. “Time out!” she cried. During the five minutes Ladon begrudgingly granted her, she circled up with her panting teammates.
“Look, I know it’s hard to keep up with those Glamazons,” she said, “but we can turn this game around if we disrupt their rhythm. We’ve got to confuse them.”
She outlined a few maneuvers to turn the college girls’ strength against them.