Soccer Fall 2012

Oh where to begin on recapping this fall's soccer season..... 

 

This was Nora's first season and she was ready. 

She has watched soccer since birth so it was nothing new for her to be out there on a Saturday morning but this year she was in uniform for the Magic!  She was excited from day one and was always ready and willing to play and play she did.  She scored in most if not all her games and showed some natural ball control and dribbling skills.  After she scored she would say "a goal for Nora" and either run over to the sidelines to give everyone a kiss - brothers included, or blow us kisses from the field. (see above) 

We have all girls teams now at her age and it was fun to watch them work together.  During one of the first games Nora and a teammate ended up all alone right in front of the other team's goal. The other girl stopped and instead of taking it from her and scoring herself, Nora pointed to the goal and said "kick it in there."  That never happened in all the little boy games we watched!

Looking forward to some more soccer fun from this little girl!

Garrett was on racing this year with a fun group of boys and some wonderful coaches.  

He was out there and happy though he wasn't always fully engaged in the game.  He noted that he liked defense because "you just stand there."  He seemed to forget he was left footed for a few games in a row which didn't help his goal kicks and gave us a lot to chuckle and cringe over but he was enjoying the game as a whole and while his team didn't do so well over all they definitely had a lot of fun together. 

 

Ian had a mixed season too.  

He moved up to U10 this fall with a much bigger field, goalies, and offsides in the mix.  He started out a soccer monster but I think with soccer and school starting at the same time he was overrun quickly by the idea that his time was no longer his own.  He primarily played sweeper this year and did a great job when his head and heart were in it but that wasn't every game.  We had some big talks about attitude, team playing, commitment, and sportsmanship this year.  We hadn't really needed to have those talks in the past so Chris and I were caught a bit by surprise.  I think the talks were productive and will provide examples to refer back to when necessary in the future.  After this season he decided not to be on the tournament select team so we have a break from soccer for a while.

His team, Arsenal, was a very talented team and through some adversity they managed to tie for 3rd place in their division.  I refereed quite a bit this year and was pleased to see how much talent and determination is in the U10 boys division.  There should be some really good teams coming up in the next few years.