The movie starts like this- a soccer team that doesn’t know the meaning of the word team. The players all fight for the most glory, to be the one to score the goal. They gather in groups during practice to whisper hate. United they do not stand so together all they do is fall. They are friends but not teammates. Then a scene- a bus ride, the team bathed in the red of the emergency exit signs. They eat cookies and sing disjointed songs. They are drunk on victory and the last breezes of summer. The team parts on good terms.
The next morning brings frantic texts and then an email, a short email -“Practice is cancelled for today” from their coach. More frantic texting and at noon, the protagonist gets a text to meet at the field at noon. A knock on the door a minute later brings her rushing to find clothes, anything, a barely clean enough pair of short shorts and some old discolored t-shirt. A stop sign is ignored as she and her teammate rush to the field. In the parking lot, a few more teammates are in clothes similar to hers. Their eyes are lined with red and a parent warns them not to drive if they don’t feel they are able while she passes out tissues. Finally the assistant coach arrives.
       The team heads to the stadium and sits in a circle by the twenty yard line. Silence is only broken by the crying nobody tries to hide. Time passes and soon the head coach shows up. He, like the rest of the team, has no words, not yet. “I’m sorry,” he says. More silence, more tears. “She was always making us laugh,” the coach says. “Why don’t we share our favorite memories of her?” The silence is broken.
People start speaking. “If you ever needed someone to talk to, she was there” and “I never met anyone so alive. She never stopped running, never stopped laughing. Do you remember this joke she told?”  Silence is replaced with tentative laughs. The protagonist starts crying. A few stories more and silence takes over again. The school’s four guidance counselors show up. They start handing out bottles of water and tissues. The principle shows up and gives a short speech. He leaves. The athletic trainer shows up to mourn for he, too, was a good friend of hers. One counselor sits in the circle with the team. He asks them when they found out about her death. The team shares their stories, going around the circle. Three questions later, he finally shuts up. More crying, more silence. Minutes later, he and the other counselors leave. They did their job. The assistant coach speaks up. “Today will be hard. Tomorrow will be harder. But after that, it will get better. I promise you, it will get better.”
            The head coach then asks the team about Saturday. They have a game. They were going to postpone it but decided to let the girls decide. The team instantly votes to play. That is what she would have wanted. The team decides to stand up, pretending like they are about to leave. They aren’t. Nobody wants to be the first one gone. They stand together because they do not know how to be alone. They have no idea what to do. They were told multiple times already that everyone deals with grief in different ways.  That is a lesson nobody easily understands. Finally, the team leaves. The protagonist walks home with her friend. They finally get to talk for real- without caution, without caring about being callous. They share memories, real memories, ones that show her in any light, both good and bad. Eleven years worth of memories start flowing slowly. They talk about their feelings, how they do not feel bad. They are not touched, not yet. Tears are not flowing. The only pain is the sunburn from sitting on the field in the August sun. They will feel later but for now, they try to take in the events of the day.
                A few short hours later, the team is back together. Wearing their jerseys, they watch the boys’ soccer team play. The game is won for her. Everyone sticks around after and many more show up. It was time for the candlelight vigil. The team stood together, greeting other friends but returning to home base, to the team. The assistant coach tells the team that they are going to be the center of attention. The team is the group that has seen the dead girl every day for the past month. They are strong, united, together, if only for one night. It is easy to focus on one group. The team steps up to be that group. Candles are passed out and the team stands in a line in front of the flagpole. People join them and the candles are lit. The sobbing of the mother is not something anyone could forget. Her uncle speaks out the first tentative words against suicide. Her friend wails in the worst of voices “Don’t any of you ever dare do this to us again.”
             Eventually, people leave and candles are blown out. Only one light is left. The team walks to centerfield. They pray, trying to find a prayer that everyone knows. They first say Hail Mary. Those who are not Catholic are lost. They stay there anyway. The Lord’s Prayer comes next and nearly everyone can at least follow along.  The team stands in silence, holding hands, until they finally walk off the pitch to comfort the others still left. Leaving takes longer- they are not yet ready to face being alone yet needing it all the same. Being together means ignoring reality; ignoring the true light of their uneasy relationship with the teammate they just lost. Shoulders that now hold the world feel a bit less burdened with a weight of an extra hand, lending strength they didn’t know they had. But all comfort must end. Alone, they face the truth and alone, they face the pain. They put it off long enough already. Besides, eyes are tired and long for sleep. They leave slowly, walking with heavy hearts to their cars.
           The next day finds the team back at the pitch. They walk towards the school to a classroom. When there, the coach pulls up several pictures. One- two boys in the street with a soccer ball, the backdrop filled with debris. Another- an MLB game mere days after 9/11, the stadium decked out in red, white, and blue. Another- kids smiling while playing ball, their country torn by war. Another, and another, and another. “Look at all of these people. Despite everything going on, they are able to smile. If only for a moment, they are happy. They are free. Through sports, people heal,” the coach says. “You guys decided yesterday to play tomorrow. We can get through this, one day at a time. We will get through, one practice, one game at a time. We will heal together, as a team. We are going to go out there and practice because we can. This season is going to be played for her. Girls, you don’t realize how strong you are, just showing up today. This is something none of you should ever have to go through but now we’re here and we’ll survive.”
            Montage of the team training and their games. Scenes flicker, showing shirts being made with the number one on the back and the girl’s last name above, showing the team with their ones in the air, showing the student section filled with purple. The coach’s voice can be heard saying “This season is dedicated to her. Not just this game, but this season. And the first game ball goes to her. Number one on the field, number one in our hearts. I’m proud of you girls. You don’t realize how strong you are”
Scenes change. Half of the team at practice, angry words, coach trying not to yell. The team is not a team. They did not unite. All they do is fall. The semifinal is lost.
           The story does not end there. A new season, a new wave of freshmen. Just days into the preseason, the athletic trainer kills himself after his sentence is read. He is found guilty on multiple accounts of sexual misconduct. The coach gathers the team up. “You may have heard some disturbing news today that may be upsetting for some people” the coach says. The protagonist recognizes the dead person speech immediately. She sighs and looks down. It is not a speech she wants to know so well. Another suicide, a totally different situation. This time, at least, the team does not have to mourn. They do not mention him except by accident. The protagonist is relieved.  The season goes by, the team getting closer and closer. They finally know what it means to be a team.
         Another montage- the team practicing together, spending time outside of soccer together, winning together. Senior night rolls around and the seniors, including the protagonist, bring flowers to their dead teammate’s mother. They hug and cry. She should have been there, next to them. Right before the game, the team puts their fingers up in the air, raising the ones up high for the last time. They win against someone who has beaten them time and time again. The protagonist cries, finally feeling the loss of her teammate. She cries and feels whole like her healing came all at once.
A new day. A new game. The semifinals against the opponent they fell to last year. This time, the team wins with ease. They scream like they have just won the world. This was their finale. They knew they could not win the Championship. This was their gold. “I don’t know what to say”, the coach says. “I’ve never been in this situation before. For the first time in the history of our school, we’re going to the championship! We are practicing tomorrow because you have earned the right to play on for another day.” The girls scream as tears flow down their faces because they made it.
         But the story does not end there. The championship finds the team on the pitch again. They know they will lose but they are happy and act like the game is theirs. Fans fill their side of the field, more fans than the home team. The game starts, the action is mostly on their half. A lucky breakaway for them brings the ball to the other side. A player takes a shot and a sudden gust of wind pulls the ball into the net. The team did not intend to score, to win. But here they are, scoring first. The protagonist, standing in net, laughs. She wants to cry with joy but she laughs. A stroke of luck, one chance, is all it takes to win. They can do it. They just have to believe. The opponent scores minutes later on a corner kick. Tied game.
The half ends and the team is on fire. They believe, they really believe. The next half starts. Another lucky breakaway, another goal. The team is in the lead. They just have to defend for the next 30 minutes. The ball is always in their half. They fight to the death. Two minutes left and the opponent takes a shot. The ball flies towards the crossbar, just low enough to get in. The protagonist, the goalie, reacts without thinking, without knowing. It is not a save she can make. She doesn’t even have time to tell herself to just believe. She jumps and the next thing anyone knows, the ball is on top of the net. Later, she would say that she was not alone, that some supernatural force, be it her teammate or something must have been there. But all that matters is that the ball did not go in. Time runs down from there.  The team and the crowd go wild. Miracles happen and a team that was broken has finally healed. They healed and made history, the first soccer championship at their school. They beat the unbeatable team. 
    Fade out to the team holding their medals to the sky, to her.