Two teams cramped together on the field. This year, men’s soccer and softball were forced to ‘play-nice’ on the small Roosevelt High School field as they shook off the rust at their respective captain’s practices.
Captain’s practices are preseason practices held by captains of RHS teams for athletes to train for upcoming tryouts. In order to prepare, both the soccer and the softball teams needed the field.
Senior varsity softball captain Lauren Guise reports on how splitting of the field normally went. Typically, practice would start with the soccer team getting 60 yards, leaving the softball team with 40 yards. Guise explains that she understands the rations due to the difference in player turn-out, even though she wished for a full 50 yards for her team.
As practice went on, Guise’s hopes for a 50-50 split became increasingly distant. She says that “they would always kind of creep up to the 30 [yard line] or even the 20.”
Senior varsity men’s soccer captain Joe Dale was often the one leading the creep. Guise says she understands that being a captain means being a leader. “It’s his job to be a spokesperson for his team’s needs, which was apparently always more space on the soccer field.”
Dale has a different view of the situation. He says he thought softball was taking up too much space, especially since they were “just kind of throwing around a ball”— a bold statement considering that the softball team were last year’s Metro Champions.
When Dale tried to negotiate more space, he says he was faced with senior varsity softball captains Lauren Guise and Katie Thorson being “very disagreeable and non-compromising.”
Softball captain Lauren Guise and men’s soccer captain Joe Dale at Roosevelt High School.
On the edge of a tantrum, Dale continued to whine about the softball captains. “They were just out for themselves and being selfish.” The diva also made sure to note that he “didn’t have any problems with DJ Symons,” showing blatant favoritism towards the third captain of the softball team.
Faced with not having the luxury of being the favorite, Guise decided aggressive advocacy was the best way to achieve what she wanted: an equal split. As part of her strategy, she opted to use a personal anecdote of a near disaster. While Thorson was throwing pop flies for the outfielders to catch, one player missed the ball. The ball came hurtling down and landed smack in the middle of the leg of a stray soccer player.
“It was definitely a hard hit,” Guise says, not shying away from incriminating her own team.
Dale agreed with Guise, adding that the player “was hurt for several days.” Dale described the tragic injury as “intense bruising on his leg.”
Guise used this story as proof that the softball team needed a fair fraction of the field, saying, “Errors are bound to be made,” reinforcing the importance of accounting for softballs flying awry when divvying up field space.
Alternatively, Dale used this story to back up his previous claims that softball players were often inconsiderate toward the soccer team. “I did not see Katie Thorson issue an apology that was adequate,” he says. Dale continues by saying his actions were nice and appropriate and he was “not seeking to infringe upon their practice,” instead taking on the role of the innocent.
Instead of a peaceful resolution, the captains continued to battle it out until the season started and their coaches provided them with an official schedule.
But for the remainder of captain’s practices, soccer boys had to deal with disagreeable softball girls and the anxiety of getting injured by softballs. Meanwhile, softball players were left to deal with obnoxious soccer players and a shrinking field.
Evidently, the preseason captain’s practices shifted the previously friendly relationship between the men’s soccer and the women’s softball team to one of torment and anguish. Even though the players wear the same colors, spirit cannot cover their strife.
