Ballin’: Freshman co-ed soccer team plays to enjoy the sport, not win

It’s the first game of the season, and the Ballers Brookside Soccer Club team is down by 10. As snow falls onto the turf field, freshman defender Katheryn Nachtigal decides it’s time to change the pace of the game. As the opposing team transitions the ball up the field, Nachtigal makes a quick move to intercept the oncoming pass and defend her goal.

But she doesn’t kick the ball out to the sidelines. She kicks the ball directly into the white net of her team’s own goal, increasing the opposing team’s lead to 10-0.

A group of freshmen have created a co-ed rec soccer team for this spring season of Brookside Soccer Club coached by freshman Luke Tsaur’s dad. But their intention isn’t to ultimately hold up the end-of-season trophy—creating stronger friendships and having a good time is their goal for the Ballers team.

“The guy was trying to kick it into the goal and he was trying to pass it. My plan was to kick it the other way, but then I went into it and I kicked it straight into our goal and I don’t even know how it happened,”  Nachtigal said.

In spite of the loss, even after they high-five and say “good game” the energy and enthusiasm shown by the Ballers made it seem as if their team had just won by five goals.

By the end of the game everyone is jumping up and down cheering, according to Tsaur.

The relationships built on the field consist of talking about their latest Fortnite dubs and everyone talking about their plans after the game. Ballers is a place outside of school to hangout with friends and meet new people from STA and Rockhurst.

“You get closer with everyone and form friendships that you never would have thought that you could,” freshman Jack Hays said.

Not only do players build relationships off of snowy Saturday night games with their teammates, but also with the referees. The referee, Christian Anderaos, is from Brazil and refs all of the Ballers’ games. He eventually started signing up for their specific games and learned every player’s name.

“It was probably after I scored my first goal, I went over to him and asked what a good celebration dance was,” Hays said. “Since he’s from Brazil he told me to do the Brazilian dance and we started talking and now we have a handshake.”

Although their field positions seem ineffective to some, they make perfect sense to the team. The goalie doesn’t need to be in the goal unless the ball is on his side, so one of the goalies, freshman Eric True, wanders up the field to talk about the play that just unfolded.

This often results in quick sprints back to the goal after another team has a breakaway—but at least he’s caught up on the latest drama and knows more about his plans for the night.

While some of the players choose normal tennis shoes over cleats, or make the bold decision to go shinguard-less, they all sport matching red jerseys. Instead of eating orange peels at halftime and going over plays the team snaps pictures and celebrates multiple missed goals. As well as Tsuar flailing his arms after scoring a goal and yelling, “I calculated that!”

The Ballers’ is a team that differs from East sports due to the laid back attitudes from the pressure and seriousness of high school games versus rec soccer games.

“At East you can’t really talk to the kids on the other team or the ref because they’re really competitive, but with the Ballers you just be yourself, talk to the ref and make new friends,” Hays said.

East sports do not offer co-ed teams, so Ballers’ is a out-of-school sport where the girls and guys can participate in soccer one one team instead of two separate teams.

The team does not plan to stop playing and making memories this year, but to continue the friendships and fun times throughout their highschool careers by continuing the legacy of the Ballers.

“We’ve played other teams where the whole team is seniors, I think it would be fun to go all the way through high school with this team and make better memories and better friends throughout it,” Hays said.

“Ballers, Go! Go! Go!”