The Life of Couch: Aggression

Yesterday was our first official head to head Quidditch match of the season, VT v UVA. We all headed down to the Drillfield, expecting a good close match. We were playing best 2 out of 3. The first match was quick and close, about 10 minutes long. We won with a score of 70-30.

And then everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Something clicked in UVA's mind after that first game, and they found a way to completely shut us down. Their defense was absolute and we couldn't get near the goal at ALL. And to make EVERYTHING worse and more frustrating, they were ridiculously aggressive and physical.

Quidditch is a full contact sport, which scares a lot of people away, especially girls. I'm good at taking a hit, so it doesn't deter me (thank you high school volleyball for teaching me how to roll!), but GOSH yesterday sucked. Those kids were hyper-aggressive, and nitpicking the rules, and yelling at the ref, and being really really scrappy. Our team was really taking a beating. But the weird thing is, they'd be completely douchey during the match, but come up to me and apologize afterwords. I didn't know how to take it.

There were three bad moments that really stick out, and they were all UVA guy on VT girl. A UVA chaser charged our girl chaser when she caught the ball, and was on top of her on the ground. She started kicking to try to get up, and he started yelling "REF, She's kicking! That's illegal!" And he got REALLY mad about it. I yelled over at him, "Well, when you mount her like a lion like that, she's gotta kick to get back up!". The ref agreed with me, but his attitude really grated against me. This kid has a terrible attitude on the pitch in general. Another time, our girl beater was picking up the bludger (for the record, chasers and beaters can't be physical with each other. You match up to like positions), and this guy COMPLETELY barreled her over. The third involved me and one of their beaters. I was getting the ball, and he came at me from the side/back. I was fine, I rolled out of it, but this kid hit my knee.

If there is one body part I am so protective of, it is my knees. High School volleyball ruined my knees, and I've been struggling with knee pain for years. I sprained my left knee last March playing quidditch, so I've been really careful this year to take care of myself. But this kid's bone or something collided with my right knee, and I was down. It's bruised pretty badly right now, about 22 hours later. But I wanted to hurt this kid. I could hardly walk, but I wanted to hurt this kid. I never got a chance to get revenge, but karma did. He ended up chipping his tooth out later in the match and had to leave early.

Aggression can make or break a game. If one team is more aggressive than another, then the more timid team is going to get completely shut down. And that's where our downfall was. We had no aggression.

But I am still PISSED at that guy who tackled our girls. He was a jerk, and those are only two examples of many when he bent the rules to his advantage (or just blatantly broke them without repurcussion). But I have to take it with a grain of salt. If he were on our team, we'd love him. That's how sports go. And we need to learn from yesterday's game, because we have the Regional Championship in a week.