Feature: Goalies play a different game

In the world of sports, the goalkeeper holds a unique role. The position varies subtly from sport to sport, but the basics are simple — goalies organize and oversee the team’s defense during the course of play and must be willing to sacrifice their bodies to prevent goals.

“You are responsible for everything that goes on in your half of the pool, including the passes you make and the psychological impact your performance has on your teammates,” sophomore Tyler Amina of the men’s water polo team said.

Of course, for most sports, the goalkeeper operates within a different set of rules than the other players. It is possible that the difference in player position can cause a difference in attitude, but it is also possible that goalkeepers are poured from a different mold entirely, given their radically different philosophies.

“It’s said that goalkeeping takes a certain kind of personality,” sophomore Christina Maida of the field hockey team said.

In their varying types of arenas, goalkeepers tend to play a distinct type of individual game, and their tendency to be involved in relatively few plays over the course of the game often promotes a strong sense of perfectionism.

“I may only touch the ball around two to eight times during a game, so every single touch matters,” Maida said.

Though goalkeeping requires a predominantly defensive mindset, many goalkeepers also have surprisingly offensive tendencies, perhaps reflecting a suppressed desire to score. “If I weren’t a goalkeeper, I would want to play forward,” Maida said. “I love shooting and scoring, and I always ask my coach if I can play on the field for a game.”

Differences in practice also add to the general division between the positions. “Most of our drills are higher in intensity and shorter in duration,” Amina said.

Still, in spite of the overwhelming differences between goalkeepers and their non-goalkeeping teammates, many of the players who eventually become goalkeepers started at a different position and switched to fill their team’s need. Maida and Amina both include themselves in this group.

“Up until seventh grade I had played on the field, but our team needed a goalkeeper, so I figured I’d give it a shot,” Maida said.

For better or worse, goalkeepers often tend to be a center of focus at the end of intense games, especially in sports such as soccer and hockey, which employ shootouts to decide games still tied after an overtime period. For this reason, successful goalkeepers tend to have an unusually strong sense of mental composure.

“Goalkeeping requires leadership because goalkeeping requires confidence, and confidence is contagious,” Maida said.

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For a goalkeeper, confidence can be the difference between a team championship and a personal defeat, which raises the question of why anyone would ever want to take that job. In the end, the one thing that all goalies have in common is that they are just crazy enough to be a keeper.