HannaPalooza: Fall Soccer

The Fall is filled with Soccer for us. Unfortunately the Fall is also filled with photos for me on weekends so I don't make it to all the games and this year Marc couldn't make it to all of them either since they were often conflicting- oh well.

I was not pleased at all with Jessica's Soccer experience last year- I think I have blogged about that already. The team roster was announced and being at the bottom of the pack we were the team that did not have coach- not a good start. One of the reasons I was excited for this league is they promise qualified and trained coaches- not just someone's mom or dad. They should have qualified that with "if you are in the top two teams..". If you are on the bottom than you get a Dad with no training but a great attitude. I think the coach did a great job all season especially when he was not getting a lot of support or information from the league - I will leave it at that.

The most exciting thing about the team was that Jessica already knew almost everyone on her team. Five of the girls had been in preschool together even. This alone made this team far more fun for her than the rec team. Here she is with her friend Rebecca.

The other nice thing about this team were the numbers. There were 12 kids on the team, and 8 are supposed to be on the field at a time. We actually lost one girl just before the first game to a broken wrist, so we had 11 for the season. This meant that all the girls got LOTS of play time. This picture was taken during one of the first games and it was in the high 90s that day- hot hot hot.

For the second half of the first game Jessica decided to go into goal. Marc and I speculated that it was because she doesn't like to run and it was HOT that day. But we were proven wrong. She loves being in goal and would consistently play goalie for the second half of EVERY game. She had a great attitude about it- did her best but did not beat herself up when a goal was scored.

Here are a few more pictures from a game later in the season.

All in all a very successful year for Jessica. She got lots of play time and her skills did seem to improve. But most of all she really enjoyed playing. She liked her team and coach a lot. Her team did not really win too many games and the girls didn't really seem to care. Perhaps this is why they are on the lowest team- many of them just don't seem to have that competitive edge. As they walked off the field after another loss one mom turned to two or three girls and said, "do you even care that you lost?" and they turned and smiled and said, "nope!" and giggled together as they walked to the car.

Justin played soccer again this year too. This year we put him in the Rec team. It was a co-ed league and it was 1st and 2nd grade combined. Justin has truly come leaps and bounds from his Kindergarten year. The year before he did a lot of crying and whining. He would only stay in one place since the coach told him that defense stays on that line. And he would get highly annoyed when someone would steal a ball from him or when he didn't get "his turn". Well the crying and whining was almost entirely eliminated, on the field, this year. He loved getting out there and was pretty good at attacking the ball.

I love this first shot because it totally embodies what soccer is all about at this age. Everyone is in a big mob and many kids end up all tripped up on the ground.