Under no lights, with no crowd, a new sport is rapidly gaining popularity in the Staples community, rec soccer. With 37 seniors stepping onto the pitch every Saturday to showcase their almost nonexistent soccer skills, rec soccer is becoming the next rec basketball.
Rec soccer has been around for years. However, it never picked up any steam until last year, and hadn’t burst onto the scene as a prominent sport amongst Staples’ students until this year. This can partly be attributed to the spike in popularity of the FIFA Soccer videogames. Just last year, FIFA ‘13 broke the EA Sports sale record with 4.5 million copies sold in the first five days after its release. Then this year, FIFA ‘14 went on to sell over one million copies during its first day on the market.
The popularity of this video game has caused more students to follow professional soccer and become interested in the sport. Chris Wilk ‘14 describes the rec soccer players as, “mostly people who love to follow professional soccer and play FIFA trying to pursue their dreams.”
These 37 seniors were split amongst two teams and opened their seasons against each other, organized chaos ensued. “Absolutely no one ended up playing defense, just like the New York Knicks, that is a fact,” said Wilk.
George Ingber ‘14, a Jackie Moon-esk player-manager, stated, “everyone’s overall lack of skill but competitive fire leads to very evenly matched games with many funny moments.” One of these moments unfolded when Seth Eugley ‘14 scored a stunner and proceeded to row an imaginary boat on the field. These moments are not all too uncommon as many players partake in wild celebrations after scoring even the most pedestrian of goals.
Players aren’t all too concerned about the result of their games. It’s much bigger than that.
“At the end of the day it’s not about the result, it’s about the fame…and especially the women,” explained team captain Peter Bradshaw ‘14.
Ben Cion ‘14, refereed many rec soccer games last year. However, this year he turned in his zebra stripes and paycheck for a jersey and leads the attack on his team. “I decided to play because it’s a good time to play soccer with some friends, although we aren’t very good,” explained Cion. “What we lack in talent is made up for in crazy on field antics.”
Similar to any Staples sport, trash talk is very common throughout intense matches. “It gets pretty heated, I told this kid I could easily be his dad because he looked about six,” described Cion. Witty banter is often exchanged between opposing players and referees.
“Sam Reach ‘14 keeps team morale high thanks to his sassy on field chatter with both players and referees,” added Wilk.
Believe it or not, there is also a senior day for rec soccer. Posters will be hung up in the school and the players will be dressed in suit and tie throughout the school day. On October 26th at 4pm on the Wakeman turf field, the two senior teams will square off. “So come on down to the field to watched an intense yet laughable game of soccer,” pleaded Wilk.
Rec soccer is competitive, rec soccer is funny, and “Rec soccer is life,” added Bradshaw.
