Case in point: My high school soccer team
Early in the season, the summer sun is so hot.
No trees + not being allowed to jump in the canal + running for two hours = a team of very, very, very warm girls.
I figured there would be no place to hide from the relentless sun when we were called over to our coaches, but my girls weren't as quick to surrender. As we all stood listening, I could see out of the corner of my eye that every time I shifted my weight, so did the line of girls next to me. They were using me to hide from the sun. I had no shade, but they found some---it was created by me! This was also the case whenever it was extraordinarily windy.
The best example, however, took place during morning practices. Early in the morning, our practice fields were still dewy wet. Whenever we stopped running, we all became very aware of the hoard of gnats that would hover around us. They were itchy and annoying, and we quickly figured out that they swarmed around the highest available appendage. In the beginning, we would all sit on the field to talk with our hands raised above our heads. By the end of the season, everyone just stood as close around me as possible so they no longer had to raise their hands at all. All the gnats just swarmed around mine.
It kinda made me the unofficial team mother. Anytime anyone was uncomfortable, the girls would come flock around me. 'Twas rather nice. For all of us.
