User blog:Hiro Naruya/My Journal: Intense Training

I watched Raimon's match with Tengawara on TV today in my dorm. They won, but...they're not quite there yet. I noticed that only the captain, Shindou; goalkeeper, Sangoku; and midfielders Matzukaze and Nishizono seemed to actually be doing anything; everyone else just stood around. Coach Endou's going to have his work cut out for him trying to unify the team. Shouldn't be that hard, though; he's Endou-san. :)

Watching Endou-san reminds me of my first year in the Raimon soccer club.

As I wrote before, I was the worst soccer player on the team. I didn't want to let everybody down (I mean, who wants to play alongside a guy like that?), so I would go extra-early to the grounds everyday to practice. I would work on my dribbling and passing, since those were the two things I was worst at: it never took more than 5 seconds for one of my teammates to steal the ball from me, and my passes were always intercepted. Although I worked hard, I couldn't really see any improvement. That frustrated me and everybody else on the team. After hearing some of them remark to each other that I had two left feet (not exactly what they said; the original was a lot worse), I grew really discouraged and thought about quitting. It didn't help when I saw how Toramaru-kun was already in the first team and excelling, even as a first-year. One day, after practice, I just couldn't stand it anymore; when I missed another pass and received a reprimanding from Captain, I turned and ran off the court. I cringe every time I think about it now. All my life I thought that I wasn't a quitter, but at the time, I couldn't bear one more missed play or scowl from Captain. So I ran and ran, not really paying attention to where I was going, until I ran smack into Endou-san, who was on his way to the Steel Tower Plaza to practice with that tire of his. After I gasped out an apology and after he checked himself for broken bones - no, not really - he asked me if I was all right. I tried to brush him off at first, but if there's anything Endou-san is, he is persistent. He invited me to go with him to the plaza and practice as well (he could tell by my uniform that I was a member of the soccer club). I finally agreed.