Cleats by Bill Hinds for January 18, 2021

I was in a co-rec game one time as a keep, and we were getting to the end of the half, and I was feeling my oats and instead of passing the ball, I just took off with it. The shock of seeing 270 pounds of middle aged statistician rumblin, bumblin, stumblin up the middle on the dribble froze the defense for a surprising amount of time, and the few tricks I knew got me past the defenders into a one on one with the goalie. Now I knew I only had maybe another couple of seconds before defenders caught up with me, and I had planned this great corner goal shot to look like a stud. Of course I mistimed the kick and got my toe under it making it a high arc shot … which the goalie could have gotten easily if they hadn’t decided to charge at me due to the outrage of me trying to score on them. It managed to go over his head and dribble into the goal for the score. Took a little while to catch my breath after that one … but it was totally worth it.