The deck was stacked against the Flying Pancakes of Youth Recreational Soccer this morning.

A hailstorm had ripped through the Treasure Valley the previous night, leaving several large tree branches on the field.  The goats who usually roam the perimeter of the field had apparently been spooked by the lighting and thunder, so they were nowhere to be found.  And ominous clouds threatened to burst forth with more rain at any moment. 

And the Flying Pancakes’ star midfielder was facing some personal adversity herself.  She had awoken at 5:13 AM with a bloody nose.  Several kids were being loud and obnoxious at the YMCA this morning.  And someone had even been butchering Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca on the piano in the Youth Activity Center, which was deeply offensive to the Princess of Perfect Pitch.

This relentless barrage of tribulations was practically a 2026 edition of the Plagues of Egypt in Exodus!

And then, during one of those rare moments when the proverbial stars align to create a caricature of a constellation, one of the Flying Pancake players was flattened by a flying ball.

I bet you can guess which player it was!

She needed a few moments on the bench to compose herself.  But after making an itemized list of existential grievances, receiving some precious encouragement from some teammates and coaches, and taking 6 deep breaths, she returned to the field and finished out the game! She ended up earning a Medal of Honor (or maybe it was a Sportsmanship Medal…same thing) for her heroics!

And even though the Flying Pancakes didn’t win (they actually tied), today was a win for resilience and perseverance.  Oftentimes the biggest victories in sports have very little to do with the game’s outcome😊