9 Gym Class

Everyone in Sarimah’s Grade 7 gym class gathered at the doors. The teacher appeared from around a corner. He asked them to form a single line and head outside quietly.

“You voted to play snow soccer for gym class,” he said. “Everyone who has a light-coloured jacket will play on one team. Everyone with a dark-coloured jacket is on the other.”

Sarimah looked down at her red coat liner and then at Izzy’s silver jacket. She glanced around at the other kids and noticed Brandt and Seamus both wearing light colours, too. She spotted Kaelynn and Tamsen standing together, in black jackets.

“Sarimah,” the gym teacher said, “you’ll play with the dark jackets to even the teams.”

“I guess we will be playing against each other,” Izzy said.

“I guess, yes.”

Sarimah was amazed at how warm the sun felt. It was almost like spring. She shielded her eyes and looked around.

“It’s nice out, isn’t it?” Izzy said. “It doesn’t happen that often. But we’re happy when it does. It’s a Chinook.”

“What is that?”

“It’s when a whole bunch of warm air comes from the mountains. That’s why we’re outside for gym class.”

“Yesterday was so cold,” Sarimah said. “I do not understand.”

“Welcome to Canada. You don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes,” Izzy answered. “At least that’s what my grandpa says.”

The class made two teams of ten players each. It was the most players Sarimah had seen on the school field. Tamsen called her team together and started putting people into positions. She said she would play forward, while Kaelynn would play centre midfield. She sent Sarimah to play right midfield.

The teacher placed a ball at centre and flipped a coin. Tamsen called tails.

“Heads, so the ‘Silver Stars’ win,” he called. “The ‘Dark Knights’ have to defend.”

Sarimah watched the other team kick the ball back to their midfield. Brandt suddenly scooped up some snow and made a snowball. He tossed it at Tamsen and then ran for cover behind the teacher.

“Snowballs are fair play!” Brandt shouted.

“Quit it!” Tamsen yelled. “Take the game seriously.”

Kaelynn moved into position behind Tamsen. Sarimah moved beside and to the right of the two girls. She could see they wanted to pressure the ball. She would help by cutting off any passes to her side of the field.

She moved closer to the middle, knowing it would be hard for the other team to kick the ball over her head. It was warmer, but still below freezing. The ball wouldn’t sail as high as it would in warm weather.

The plan worked well. Tamsen forced the Silver Stars to kick the ball all the way back to Izzy in centre defence. Izzy had to retreat to her left, with Tamsen in pursuit. Kaelynn cut off the middle, so Izzy tried to kick the ball up the field.

She wound up and swung as hard as she could. The ball went up into the air. Then it came down almost as quickly. Sarimah was in the perfect place to trap it. Tamsen made a diagonal run in front of Izzy.

Sarimah took a quick dribble so the ball wasn’t sitting too low. She popped it forward, right into Tamsen’s path. Tamsen had nobody in front of her except the goalie. She scored, making it look easy, with a side-footed shot into the net.

“Wow,” Brandt said. “That was the fastest goal in Thornton Park School history!”

The teams regrouped for another kick-off at centre. This time, the Silver Stars tried kicking the ball forward, away from Tamsen and Sarimah.

Izzy moved ahead from centre defence, leaving a huge space behind her. Sarimah thought if she could just get the ball, she would be able to kick it ahead to Tamsen again. It would be another sure goal. Sarimah watched in amazement as Izzy kept running to the far side of the field where the ball was.

“She is not playing smart,” Sarimah said. But nobody was close enough to hear her.

But somehow, it worked. Izzy stole the ball and charged toward the goal. A few kids were giving chase, but mostly people just let her run past them. Izzy would kick the ball into empty space. It would splat in some soft snow and she would chase up to it, and kick it again. She continued like that most of the way down the whole field.

“This is silly,” Sarimah said.

“Hey, don’t be so slow!” Tamsen yelled from the forward position.

“Yes, I agree,” Sarimah said.

Her other teammates didn’t seem nearly as concerned. Izzy deked past one and then another until she was right in the penalty area. At least, it was what Sarimah thought was the penalty area. With all the snow, she couldn’t see any lines. Sarimah finally decided she had better move back to help defend, when Izzy unleashed a wicked shot. It curled left and then down before it scored.

“Toe-bomb!” she said, cheering.

“It’s good to have big snow boots,” Brandt said, as they high-fived.

Kaelynn and Tamsen kicked off at centre. They booted it back to Sarimah on the right wing. The three formed a triangle and moved the ball up-field. Brandt and Izzy played defence just enough to slow them down.

Then, Sarimah made a run up the right side. She was at the side of the field farthest from the school. The snow there hadn’t been touched. Kaelynn spotted her and hammered the ball ahead as hard as she could. Sarimah ran onto it, with Brandt close behind. He wasn’t slowing down and Sarimah was worried he was going to try something funny. She almost expected him to throw a snowball at her.

But Sarimah caught up to the ball and dug her toe underneath it, just as she had in the sand. Brandt let out a yell and came sliding forward. Sarimah flicked the ball high into the air and it looped over Brandt. Sarimah watched Brandt slide on the wet, slippery snow — much farther than Hassan had at the refugee camp. The ball bounced and Sarimah continued her chase. Izzy managed to get back into position. But in front of Sarimah it was just Izzy, and then Seamus in goal.

Sarimah continued to run toward the goal, forcing Izzy to come in to defend her closely. That helped Sarimah decide. She passed the ball on a sharp angle in front of the net. Kaelynn ran onto it and kicked home the go-ahead goal.

“Amazing goal, Kaelynn,” Tamsen said, running to congratulate her friend.

“But what about that pass?” someone yelled.

Kaelynn and Tamsen stopped and looked around. A man was standing off to the side of the goal. Kaelynn put her hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun.

“Coach?”

Sarimah stayed back a little. Izzy, Kaelynn and Tamsen ran to greet him. Sarimah was suddenly nervous, but she wasn’t sure why.