Gabi Hammell, Feb. 8

Hey, readers. This season is really looking up.

Believe it or not, we are on a winning streak. Last week we beat El Toro, 2-1. Monday we played San Clemente. After scoring in the first three minutes, the whole team got really pumped. We scored again in the first half. A few short moments later, we scored again! Thankfully, we were able to defend our lead and walked away with a 3-0 shutout. It was a good game for us but it really brought out the bad side in one of San Clemente's players.

When a team is losing, it is understandable that they are going to be upset. After accidentally bumping into a girl on the ield when the ball wasn't near, I quickly apologized, although it didn't seem to matter. She turned and slapped me in the face and screamed at me to get off her, but she used much more offensive and inappropriate language, calling me fat.

I smirked at this last bit as she was a lot larger then I am. My bumping into her must have gotten her extremely upset with me because every time the ball came near, she hit me and pushed me away. In a last-ditch attempt to cool her jets, I told her, "Hey, I'm sorry for bumping into you earlier. It was an accident." She just grumbled that it was fine.

It just blows my mind how personally people take it when you steal the ball from them or try to dribble around them. I have pushed girls in my time but always when the ball was near and in play. I don't think it's really worth my time to push other players at a time when it's not going to affect the outcome of the game.

Last week before our game against El Toro, one of our teammates, Buster, received a piñata named Tina for her secret sister gift. We sat Tina on the bench during the game and after our win, we bowed down to it and decided that Tina was our good-luck charm. After bringing her back to school on Monday for the San Clemente game, Tina proved her good luck yet again and we held her up after and yelled, "To Tina!" The fun we've had as a team is really going to be missed after
the season ends on Wednesday.

Even though this season has been a lot of hard work and not as much of a success as we hoped for, I really hope everyone on the team comes back next year. The fun we've had has made all the perimeters we ran completely worth it.

Gabi

(Editor's note: If you are a student/athlete at Capistrano Valley, Mission Viejo or Trabuco Hills high and would like to write a weekly diary for Mission Viejo Patch, please contact sports editor Bob Rohwer at bob.rohwer@patch.com.)