By Maggie McNinch, Staff Writer 

What looks like a big two-story warehouse on the outside is a whole other world on the inside. The smell of soccer cleats, sweat and concession-stand food hits you. You witness players being slammed up against the plexiglass and instinctively duck as a ball comes rocketing at you, only for it to ricochet off the glass at the last second.

You’ve just entered the Virginia Beach Field House, where many First Flight soccer players find themselves traveling to every weekend. The sports complex is a bustling center for athletes, consisting of four indoor soccer fields and two other courts used for basketball, volleyball, field hockey and more. 

Freshman Lily Snow has been playing indoor soccer for four years now, and can attest to the liveliness of the facility. 

“It’s very busy in there and stuff is always happening,” Snow said. 

Due to the registration rules of the center, Snow was able to dual-roster and now has double the fun playing on two teams: Diane Weiner’s recreation team and Chris O’Neill’s competition team. 

“It’s fun because the rec team is less stressful, and it doesn’t matter what happens, but I like playing with the older girls more,” Snow said. 

The rules of indoor soccer are similar to that of outdoor. However, there is one factor that changes the entirety of the game: the plexiglass wall. Players can bounce a pass off of the wall, to their teammates or even to themselves and, a common favorite, body the opposing team’s players up against it. 

“The wall just adds a whole other dynamic to the game,” junior Ava O’Neill said. 

O’Neill has been playing since she was 12 and is now back for more after her team took a break for the last few years.

Although the wall is an important aspect of indoor soccer, it’s not the only thing that changes the game. The games are held on turf fields — which makes the ball move a lot faster. And to add to the fast-paced rhythm of the indoor soccer world, the size of the field is smaller compared to that of an outdoor soccer field. 

“The fact that it is really fast means you have to do everything really fast, which makes it hard,” Snow said.

While exciting to watch and play in, the fast-paced play of game and the layout of the field creates challenges that players don’t have to deal with in outdoor soccer. 

“It’s definitely more of a challenge to communicate in indoor, and a lot of people don’t know how to use the wall as well. So it’s a challenge working together as a team,” freshman Stella Bryson said, who plays on both Weiner’s competition team and recreation team. 

To make the game even quicker, halves are shortened from 40 minutes to 20, and the only time the ball and play stops is for free kicks. To make substitutions, players in the box (indoor’s equivalent of the bench) simply run on the field and quickly swap out with their teammate. 

While the differences of indoor soccer may seem significant, some players see the things that set it apart from outdoor as more fun and enjoyable.  

“I prefer the glass because instead of passing (in outdoor soccer) it’s more dribbling and more fundamental, so I think it’s more fun,” sophomore Wes Rhodes said, who has been playing since sixth grade, and is on Coran Newton’s team. 

This is sophomore Colin Byard’s first year playing on Dave Marino and Dan Byard’s team. He shares similar opinions as Rhodes when it comes to playing with the glass wall. 

“The glass is fun because you can dribble off of it,” Byard said. 

O’Neill however, likes the glass for a different reason: “I like having the wall and being able to use it to pass around and to also shove people into.” 

And while this seems fun and comical, the games actually get very intense and even brutal sometimes. Think of ice hockey. 

“It’s kind of violent– more violent than outdoor,” Snow said. 

While physicality is a part of playing most sports, players are willing to take the added risk of possible injury in indoor, especially, for a variety of reasons: the fast-paced nature of the game that makes it exciting to play, being able to use the wall as an extra teammate and the simple euphoria that comes with doing something you love with the people that you love. 

And while these may seem like more obvious reasons to play, others view indoor as a way to prepare for the future. 

O’Neill puts it best: “I look at the indoor season as something to get us ready for the high school season, so I think I’m looking more at the ultimate goal of winning States eventually for soccer. So I’m seeing how this can help prepare us.”

Sophomore Maggie McNinch can be reached at 22mcninchma07@daretolearn.org.