A sportif friendship

By
Redazione
– Posted on 18 Marzo 2019Posted in: Bazar, Etwinning

Caro lettore, all’interno di un progetto etwinning intitolato “Tell me a story and I’ll draw it”, gli alunni della 3F hanno scritto una breve storia in inglese. Buona lettura.

After the match, the coach was eager to have a speech:

“Guys, I love you so much. I’m gonna tell you something very important for my future, but I know it’s going to be very sad. Next season I’m going to change my team. I wish you a better season with your new coach. I’ll think of you every single day. Good luck to everyone. Bye.”

I can’t understand why he’s going away. He is going to miss us and we are going to miss him.

September 24th 2018, I can still remember his last words before our summer break. All the summer spent thinking of a new coach: Who is he? What kind of coach is he? Is he young and strong? We had no ideas. The great day arrived at last.

I’m so excited this morning as well as all my team. It’s the first training day of the new season and my friends and I are going to meet our new coach.

The very instant we saw the new coach, we couldn’t believe it. Was it a joke? She was a short skinny woman with big green eyes and long dark brown hair, she had a ponytail and wore a white T-shirt and black leggings. A strange Asian boy stood near her.

“Hi, everybody. My name is Alice, I’m your new coach of the season, and this is my son Robby.

Are you ready to start your first rugby training?”

Everyone was astonished. No one would expect a woman. After we gave her a weak welcome and introduced ourselves, we started running three laps of the field. The first workout with Alice was very different from the last one with old coach Cesare. It lasted almost one hour. Then we played a friendly match. We were so eager to show Alice we were a strong team. It was a very strange match. I played the whole match. For the first time in my entire life I wasn’t on the bench, while Federico, our captain, the best player of the team, the handsome boy with short curly hair, the most popular guy loved by all the girls at school was on the bench. Robby, too, played even if he wasn’t a good player.

“First match done and all my team mates angry”, I thought. It wasn’t a good start at all.

That night we all went to Carlo’s. It was his birthday. Everyone was invited to his pizza party. When I arrived, Federico was already there. He was very angry because the coach didn’t let him play.

“Guys, listen to me”, Federico said. “I don’t like Alice, she’s too thin and short to be a rugby player or a coach. She is not convincing me”.

“I like her, she’s so nice and cute”, replied Carlo.

Then Federico screamed “Shut up, I’m your captain and I’m always right. She is not a good coach at all”.

At that very moment, Robby knocked the door. Everyone was silent, he had heard everything.

“Happy birthday”, said Robby, but no one answered.

Federico teased and made fun of Robby every time he tried to talk to the team. He was alone and sad. I would have said “Leave him alone. You’re hurting him”, but I said nothing. I knew how he felt because they usually teased me all the time for my stuttering.

At midnight, Alice came and picked Robby up. She looked at his face. He was sad. His shirt was dirty of pizza. She asked him if everything was ok, but she knew it wasn’t. Robby was silent. Then she kindly repeated: “What happened?”, Robby finally told her that the whole team laughed at him at the party.

The following morning we had the first match with Alice as our coach. It was very embarrassing. The team didn’t listen to her tips. So we lost 18-0 even if the other team was not so strong and well organized. Alice was angry with Federico and his followers, so she punished the whole team. We had to clean the gym after every training for a couple of weeks. I think she wanted us to realize the team spirit, that feeling of pride and loyalty that let you cooperate as a part of a team.

Six months later, after hours and hours of workouts, 20 matches and 15 wins we were almost an unbeatable rugby team. Who would have believed that at the beginning of the season when we lost the first five matches, when Federico was always awful with Alice and her son. But now things are very different, Federico and Robby are best friends. Could you have imagined such a happy ending? We have become a tight team because everything is possible if people support each other and try to understand others’ feelings. Now you are asking yourself what happened to Federico and Robby. Are you sure you want me to tell you this story? I know dear Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian partners, you are looking forward to reading the rest of the story. So you should know that one day after we lost a match Robby saw Federico’s dad. He was talking to his son, but he was so rude to him because of Federico’s bad performances during the match. He spoke to him severely and Federico was so sad. He gave him a scolding and screamed something like: “You are not a good player at all, you will never become a champion. I didn’t go to work to drive you here and watch such a horrible match. And you know what? The loser is my son!” Robby was shocked. His father, too, usually got angry with him. He remembered when he used to fight with his father before his parents divorced. He started to feel sorry for Federico. Maybe he wasn’t the strong boy he pretended to be. Federico felt embarrassed, he knew Robby had seen everything even if he kept silent. The following day, we had a dinner all together. Everyone had fun, but Federico was quite and alone. No one knew why with the exception of Robby. That evening Federico was absent minded, so he forgot his favourite red cap. When Carlo got his coat before leaving, he showed everyone Federico’s hat. Soon Robby offered to go to Federico’s and give him his cap back.  He was always kind to everyone, so that day nobody realized why he was eager to have Federico’s cap. When Alice came and picked her son up, Robby told his mother he was so nervous because he wanted to give Federico’s hat back but he was afraid he could meet his father. Fortunately when he rang the doorbell on that Monday afternoon, Federico’s mum opened the door. He asked for Federico who soon showed himself. Federico already knew why Robby was there so he invited him to go up to his room. They talked for hours. When they came down everyone knew a new friendship arose even if no one could know how all that was possible. From that day on, Federico started to be very nice with all the team. Everyone was surprised, but at the same time everyone was happy of Federico’s changed behavior. There were rumors on this new friendship, but no one ever knew the true story. Only Federico’s mum and Alice understood their new feeling because their stories had much in common. Even if no one knew the truth, we were so delighted by the result of this new situation. It became a great pleasure to train together every weekend. You know what. Even if nobody knew how this friendship started, we learned a very important lesson. Having good friends is very important because you can do a lot of things with your friends. If you have a friend, you will never feel alone. Best friends are always there if you need help. Whenever you have a problem, you can talk to a friend.

Finally, on May 24th 2019, the final tournament arrived. Guess who we played with. Cesare and his new team. They couldn’t beat us, Federico and Robby were undoubtedly the best rugby players ever and they led us, the Bernocchi team, to a victory. So when Federico scored after twenty minutes we realized we were a very strong team, but when Cesare’s player committed foul on Federico and he let Robby have his free kick we realized we were not only a team, but most of all we were true friends.