Supa Strikas

The Training

~Shakes POV~

I hate waking early in the mornings. But today was the first day of our training with the new Coach. So I had to be extra careful not to be late.

I arrived at the STC earlier than usual and saw everybody already there.

"Mi Amigo, finally you know what morning is! Rejoice for he has discovered the early morning Sun!" remarked El Matador.

"Aw c'mon El Matador- I wake up early a lot of times...!"

That statement earned a lot of looks that spelled out "really?"

Okay, fair enough I guess.

"Speaking of coming early... Where's our new Coach? Late?"

"Of course not. I'd know better than to be late." said Esperanza from behind our backs.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---

And let me tell you I was not the only one who screamed.

"Oh quiet down, it wasn't all that scary."

"Sista, you scared the living heck out of us. How can you even be that quiet?!" said Cool Joe.

"You reminded me of Miko Chen- from Nakama FC, he is also a master of sneaking up on people." Tiger added.

"haha- well you better get used to it, cuz I do that a lot." she said, chuckling.

"So what about da strategies and training Coach man- I mean Coach woman? Uh-" said a very confused Captain Rasta.

She let out an adorable little giggle, "Heh, you can call me Esperanza, Captain. After all, I am younger than you. Most of you."

"O-okay. Well? The Plan?"

"Oh yes! Follow me!"

We were lead into Prof's lab into the soccer pitch with a few boards on it.

One by one she explained each strategy. It got to the point where we couldn't tell the difference between her and our Coach! She could even tell when El Matador was dozing off, and when Big Bo was going to pull out another snack from behind his back. (*cough* his underwear *cough*)

At first there were some difficulties, as what happens during the first few times of applying a new strategy and training regime. But we pulled through cause Esperanza kept encouraging us every few seconds if we slowed down a bit. The encouraging was nothing like how Coach instructs us- because he usually reminds us of the competitions and snide remarks our rivals make against us and that's enough to rekindle the fire. 

But she kept complimenting on our efforts and brought us water if we were sweating or huffing and puffing a lot.

A while later we were all applying the strategies and formations. It seemed like we were in perfect sync, thanks to the extra break we got yesterday.

"Great work team!" Esperanza commented on our performance.

"It was all thanks to you man- uh Esperanza, I mean."

"I can't take all the credit Captain- You guys did a fabulous job of remembering all the formations. That pass from you to Cool Joe and across the field to Tiger was perfect! And surely I can't forget the goalie, awesome- I-I mean- GREAT work out there Big Bo!"

She knew about Big Bo's sensitiveness to the "Awesome Dawson" thing? Wow, she really was trying to make everyone feel included.

"Defenders~ Slick work defending the ball man. That tackle with Grizz was smoother than butter North! But you Blok, you still need to work on the twist-pass okay?"