After the Varsity meal, I decided to head out to the soccer game were the Reinhardt Eagle ladies were playing Milligan College of Tennessee (Del Harris and Sonny Smith went there). The soccer field was a long way from the athletic building. Man, it felt like India with those rock stones on the path. Likewise, you had to walk uphill above a softball field where the girls were doing hitting and fielding drills. The whole time I was believing that the game would be over because it started at 1 p.m. but it was about 3 p.m but to my surprise, the game was only in the 3rd quarter with seven minutes left.
When I got there, it was a 0-0 game but very fast moving with lots of noise from both teams and their fans. Defense was excellent but there was lot of passing and individual plays on scoring attempts. Reinhardt was wearing the whites with blue letters and numbers as well as gold stripes while Milligan was wearing orange with white numbers and letters. Both teams fans sat on metal seat risers beside each other. On the other side, both teams benches were next to each other. I was able to move freely from one group to another but didn't dare go to teams benches even when the game was over.
I ran into one guy whose daughter played and he played football at Auburn during the 60's. Man, he told stories about making you practice on those a two-a-day drills without water. On the Milligan side, you had this Indian dude who didn't where Milligan College but dressed in orange, rooting for them. What stood out for me was this girl rooting for Milligan who had an orange tank top,remnant tattoos on her back and parts of her neck. She looked an athlete that got suspened from the team so she started her weight gain. If you know Milligan College rules, one week suspension with a beer can, student or athlete.
A soccer mom from Reinhardt kept talking about this player from Milligan who wore no. 11 named Kristen Crute. You couldn't dribble past her, she was really quick. Not good offensively but on defense, she was Asante Samuel. A small girl at 5'2 lean but built like fire hydrant. You didn't want to run into her. What made it worse was that she was from Atlanta. Soccer mom's daughter was the goalie for Reinhardt. She was praying that it didn't go to a shootout. Well, it didn't. As a another Georgia girl from Marietta scored with .5 seconds in the second overtime for Milligan.
When the game was over, I went down to the softball field and watch the Reinhardt girls play. They were very annimated in their drills, throwing, hitting and cheering like it was tournament time. But by the time I got there, the girls were getting tired.They have been there for at least two hours indicated by that 36-22 score and the scoreboard operator stopped clicking because they scored some more when I got there. Then, a first baseman threw the softball to this fielder/pitching machine operator so hard, she gave a dirty look like she was going to kick her butt. On the previous play, the first baseman received a throw from the pitch-fielder and dropped it in a casual manner much to the shagrin of the pitch-fielder. It looked like a fight was going to occur but luckily the girls got back to their drills and the coaches decided to call it a day on this hot one.
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