It was around twelve thirty when I headed out to the Field of Dreams to go watch my niece play some soccer. The weather report hinted at a thirty percent chance of rain but there were hardly any clouds in sight and the sun was shining down on the back of my neck. The weather was humid and uncomfortable.
There was a man, probably mid thirties, cheering on his daughter. He was a white male with short blonde hair and for some reason he was chewing on prairie grass as if he were a farmer. Whenever the ball would roll out of bounds, the mans daughter would rush over to the sideline to throw it in. I constantly heard, "Throw it down the seam, Danielle." His daughter, not knowing what that meant, would use her momentum to hurl the ball as far as she could and immediately got appraisal. From what I could tell, the man was taking the sport way too seriously and would yell at the referee for supposed bad calls. He would say, "Really ref? How was that offsides?" This man had little patience but supported his daughter nonetheless.
To my left were two elderly people that were watching their grandson, Omaro. The couple had gray hair so I'd assume they were in their sixties and they were both holding polka dotted umbrellas over their heads to shield themselves from the sun. Omaro is probably the teams best player but refuses to play defense and will only run when the ball is within his vicinity. I overheard the couple screaming, "Don't just stand there."
I looked across the field because there was some commotion brewing on the sideline. The coach on the opposite team was getting furious at the ref and kept throwing off his hat in a fit. The coach had to have been in his late thirties and he was running on a short fuse. He was a bit on the heavy side and from his skin color, I could tell he must have been Hispanic. Every chance he got, he would start yelling as if he were Jim Harbaugh. He was taking his coaching job way too seriously and this caused the parents to get riled up with him. It got to the point where the ref stopped the game and threatened to have the coach ejected.
As time advanced in the game, the score was 1-3 and I could tell that my nieces team had grown tired. To be honest, I wanted her team to win just to shut the opposing parents up. In a desperate attempt to tie the game up, the coach yelled to Omaro to just shoot the ball and it actually worked! This really got the parents angry and they kept yelling "hand ball" on the side lines. A few bad calls later and the game ended 3-4.
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