Yesterday, I used to be in a second-hand clothes store after I got here throughout a white polyester sports activities jersey. It was a bit smaller than most in its dimension class, the lower of the shirt was similar to what a soccer or lacrosse participant would possibly put on: a brief sleeve. The shirt was very slender within the shoulders and somewhat wider within the tail, which recommended to me that it was designed for a feminine athlete.
On the entrance was a blue Nike maker’s mark and 4 block letters on the entrance: DUKE. And underneath that wordmark was the quantity 14 which Maddie Jenner wore with distinction as one of many most interesting draw-takers and all-around attacking midfielders I’ve ever seen. Was this a lacrosse jersey? May it have been for soccer? Another Duke sports activities crew?
This encounter bought me considering. There are two lists of area hockey and lacrosse gamers which have been forming in the previous few weeks on the market within the area hockey and lacrosse worlds, each of whom will feed into competitors this summer time. One is the group of 52 athletes who will participate in Athletes Limitless over a interval of 5 weeks within the late summer time in Sparks-Glencoe, Md. The opposite is a gaggle of practically 150 area hockey gamers who can be collaborating within the Senior Nexus Championship across the ides of July in Virginia Seaside, Va.
However after I take a look at the lists of gamers, what stands out to me are the gamers not on these lists.
The place, as an illustration, are the likes of Jenner, Caitlyn Wurzburger, Hannah Luebecker, or Jenn Medjid in Athletes Limitless? They’re gamers of appreciable high quality and marketability on the nationwide and world levels.
You may also make the identical argument concerning the likes of Erin Matson, Mackenzie Allessie, Ryleigh Heck, and Olivia Bent-Cole, none of whom are taking part in within the two-day Nexus championship this summer time.
The checklist of omissions is especially attention-grabbing since you might have in these two teams a few of the highest-scoring athletes of all time — Heck, Allessie, and Wurzburger are on the high of the all-time lists of their respective sports activities.
Definitely, there are causes for these gamers to not be on the pitch. Some are teaching; others making the transition to the working world. For others, it may be load administration for the following school season.
I get it.
However these video games are usually not going to be fairly the identical.