What is football? This "Plateau Women s Football Team" at an altitude of 4,000 meters has their answer

Cover News Reporter Che Jiazhu

In Seda County, Garze Prefecture, Sichuan, with an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, the wind howls all year round, the grasslands are vast, and the sky is blue. The children here have grown up in pastoral areas, and herding cattle and carrying water have become part of their daily lives. However, in this land, there is a "Red Star Women's Football Team" that seems to have nothing to do with the plateau.

When I called Zeng Bing for the first time, the team was playing. This volunteer teacher from Tongping Primary School in Wenjiang District, Chengdu is leading the team to participate in the "Gongga Cup". Youth campus football teams from all over the province gather in Chengdu, and the Seda Red Star Women's Football Team also participated in this football primary school girls' competition.

On the afternoon of November 6, Zeng Bing told the cover news reporter that the Seda Red Star women’s football team finally stopped in the cross-knockout round, losing 1:2 to Zigong and failing to qualify for next year’s finals. However, for this plateau women’s football team, every time they go out, it is the tenacity given to them by the plateau.

From the Plateau to the Plains

Carrying the "low-reflection" to play the game

"When we first arrived in Chengdu from Se, the children's brains were dizzy." On the other end of the phone, Zeng Bing's tone was calm, but there was a hint of regret. He is a physical education teacher sent to Seda Red Army Primary School in Wenjiang District and is also the person in charge of the women's football team. Due to long-term living in high-altitude areas, whenever the team travels from Seda to low-altitude cities to compete, the team members will experience "altitude sickness"-like "altitude sickness" phenomena - dizziness, fatigue, and lack of concentration. "The research team of Beijing Sport University has tested our players, and there is about a four to five day adaptation period." Zeng Bing said, "But the game will not wait for you to adjust to your condition."

For this year's "Gongga Cup", the team arrived on October 30, opened on the 31st, and started the game on the 1st. Their form was sluggish in the past two days, and they lost to a school in Qingshen County, Meishan in the first game. "We shouldn't have lost that game." Zeng Bing said, "But the children are really in bad form."

This is also their fourth time participating in the "Gongga Cup". They fell before the semi-final threshold three times. Regret? certainly. Competitive sports have inherent regrets. But they fought until the last second, just for a breakthrough and a chance to be seen.

Girls are growing up

From a pastoral girl to the captain of the football team

In this team, there is a name that Zeng Bing mentions repeatedly - Renqingji.

She was born in an ordinary herdsman family, and she had younger brothers and sisters to take care of. In the past, after school, she had to walk several kilometers of mountain roads to go home to cook and feed the animals. Before joining the football team, her world was very small, as small as a tent and a piece of grass. Now, she is the captain of the team, the girl who directs and encourages her teammates on the court.

"The changes have been huge." Zeng Bing lamented, "She used to feel like she was just a football player, but now she knows that she is part of a group." In last year's state-level competition, the Red Star women's football team won the women's championship; in the summer, they went to Qionglai to participate in the "Weilai Cup" mixed competition, and they won the runner-up. And behind these honors is Rinchenji. Actively organizing training, reminding teammates to bring equipment, and setting examples for new players.

What moved Zeng Bing the most was another scene: She said: "I want to go out and have a look, and then come back and tell more sisters that girls can also play football and have dreams." Football did not change where she came from, but it gave her vision and responsibility.

Five-year teaching relay

"I know your Red Star Women's Football Team"

However, the story of Seda Women's Football Team is much more than that. In 2020, Sang Cheng, a physical education teacher from Hesheng Primary School in Wenjiang who went to Serda to support teaching, took the lead in establishing the women's football team of Red Army Primary School in Seda. This was also the first women's football team in Seda, and later became an important part of Wenjiang District's counterpart assistance education project. In June 2023, Zeng Bing came to Seda as a supporting teacher and took over the baton of this team.

He is not a professional football coach. "I was just an ordinary physical education teacher." He said frankly, "I was under a lot of pressure when I received the assignment." But he always remembered this sentence: "Coach Sang built this team. When you go, you must lead it well." So, he persisted. Fortunately, Wenjiang District's assistance mechanism is gradually taking shape. Two professional football coaches are sent to Seda every semester for guidance. The company provides financial support to ensure that Seda women's football players go to Chengdu for training during the winter and summer vacations... "What we have to do is not only blood transfusion, but also blood production." Zeng Bing said. Nowadays, local teachers from Serta are receiving training and are gradually taking over the daily training. "Even if my teaching period ends, this team will not stop."

Football is not a luxury product

It is the confidence and bravery of girls.

There is often a voice from the outside: "Is playing football too luxurious for children in mountainous areas?" In this regard, Zeng Bing gave a firm answer: "I don't think it is a luxury product. The real luxury is to make them lose the opportunity to grow." Football is not a luxury product, but an outlet of hope.

In his opinion, football brings more than just a sports skill to these girls. It is the building of self-confidence, the desire to get out of the mountains, and the belief that "I can do it too." "When I take a taxi, the driver all knows that 'Red Star Women's Football Team is very famous.'" Zeng Bing said with a smile. "Parents used to object, thinking that playing football delayed learning, but now some people are slowly changing their minds. This is progress."

He also mentioned that during training breaks, he would show the Sichuan Super League game videos to the children. "Their eyes were bright when they looked at it and they said: 'Teacher, they run so fast!' 'When can we do that too?'" It was this yearning that ignited the fire in their hearts.

Zeng Bing’s teaching period will end in December this year. Two and a half years is neither long nor short. But he knew that leaving was not the end.

For children, the future is still full of unknowns. Maybe when they enter junior high school, the team members will stop training, but maybe some of them will embark on a professional path and enter the provincial team or even the national team; maybe most of them will eventually return to ordinary life. But even if they don't become stars in the end, the experience itself is the most precious thing in their lives.

Because on the plateau, they learned persistence, cooperation and bravery; because on this land, they once ran side by side, chasing the same rolling ball.

No matter how strong the wind is, it cannot extinguish the fire in my heart.