Photo by James Ward<\/a><\/p>\nAnother game of pickup<\/p>\n
The forward glides along the ice. He goes left, beating a defender with speed. The attacker looks up, and the only thing between him and the net is the goalie.<\/p>\n
He winds up and shoots.<\/p>\n
GOAL.<\/p>\n
Players weren’t competing for any gold medals Saturday at UTA, but it wasn\u2019t a regular pickup soccer match either. Brazos Park was filled with snow.<\/p>\n
Energy engineering sophomore Ryan Varisco had a lot of free time Saturday, so he and a couple of friends walked the campus, observing familiar buildings now adorned in a varnish of white.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the group grabbed a soccer ball and kicked it around in a parking garage, later moving to Brazos Park.<\/p>\n
Soon, others began joining in, and a full game broke out on the white field.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir team, I will say, was much better,\u201d Varisco said. \u201cBut it was good. It was lots of slipping, it\u2019s completely different from normal soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group used the wooden stacking blocks at Brazos Park as goal posts on both sides and there was no real out-of-bounds area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Computer engineering freshman Sandesh Pokharel is an international student who joined after Varisco and his friends moved to Brazos Park. Pokharel said it was his and most of his friends\u2019 first time seeing snow in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many times did I not slip,\u201d Pokharel said, laughing. \u201cWhen you chase the ball, every time you are slipping all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
While students slid around the DIY pitch, Varisco said he didn\u2019t think there were any injuries. He and his friends, old and new, were just having fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unexpected, but I think those are often the most fun parts of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The third hill<\/p>\n
On Sunday, more snow came down, and the temperature dropped. There was a fresh sheet of snow on streets, sidewalks, buildings and grass.<\/p>\n
The worsened conditions didn\u2019t stop students from coming back outside. In fact, three of them were looking for the perfect hill to sled on.<\/p>\n
They carried a UTA dining sign as a sled and used a bungee cord to steer. The group started at the Maverick Activities Center, but the sled was getting caught up on the rough snow, so they tried their luck at Doug Russell Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe perfect hill, I would say, it needs to be uniform all the way,\u201d said Dhanush Srinivas,\u00a0 computer science master\u2019s student. \u201cIt needs to be a good elevation, not too high, otherwise we\u2019re just going to go sliding off the edge into the creek.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second location they found worked, but with trees and rocks as obstacles, it wasn\u2019t ideal. It was the hill to the right that got the job done: the third hill.<\/p>\n
Shreyas Rajapur Sanjay, data science master\u2019s student, said the third hill was unpredictable, and the sledder could go in either direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s having fun, there\u2019s no traffic around, it\u2019s superb,\u201d Rajapur Sanjay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t get anything better than this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Srinivas said sledding down the hills was some of the most fun he\u2019s had since the new year. He said he thought the group might stay out until the afternoon, or possibly even until sunset.<\/p>\n
As the day went on, more and more students began arriving at Doug Russell Park, each having their own go at the third hill. But it was the group of three master\u2019s students, laughing, catching each other at the bottom of the hill and just having fun, that found the perfect hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to see snow. I mean, one or two days that we see snow in Arlington, really got to make the best out of it,\u201d said Ashwin Athappan Karuppan Chetty, computer science master\u2019s student. \u201cI mean, we just live once, right? You just have to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
@wall035203<\/p>\n
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