Soccer Saturday 2/7

Another weekend of bright and early soccer. Nothing like running around trying to find uniforms and water bottles and make sure we aren't forgetting anything at 8am on a Saturday.

We ran into construction on the way to the fields and ended up having to go down a few blocks and make a u-turn. This rail construction is just a pain in the ass because it goes right through the only road that leads to the soccer park. It caused quite a few people to be running late for their games. We were only about 10 minutes late, so it worked out alright.

Kadie had the 9am game. She played forward (or midfielder, not quite sure) the first quarter. She was amazing out there for the entire 12.5 minutes. It doesn't seem long, but that's a long time in soccer minutes. For being only 10 years old, she was impressing me (and her dad) with her decision making skills on the field. She put herself in the right positions and she didn't seem to hesitate on the field, like she usually does. There was one play where she ran up the middle while her teammate had the ball on the outside. Her teammate passed her the ball and without even thinking about it she shot at the goal! She didn't hesitate, she didn't situate her feet any different, she just kicked the ball... and she kicked it hard and accurately! SHE SCORED!!! It was pretty amazing. She sat out the 2nd quarter and went back in after halftime. She went in at defense. I told her not to let anything get past her and she didn't! Come the 4th quarter she was sitting again. Not quite sure why he would take her out. Maybe because she's one of the better girls on the team so he was giving the other girls more playing opportunities or maybe because she missed practice on Wednesday. As a coach, if I had to sit someone more than one quarter, I would probably choose anyone that missed a practice, to be honest. So, I guess I understand. Anyway, we were down 6-1 and ended up scoring twice in the 3rd quarter! I thought we were going to make a comeback but we just couldn't keep up the momentum in the 4th. They ended up losing 8-3 but it was a pretty well played game. And I was so proud of my baby!

Adam's game was right after Kadie's, on the same field, except we were on the opposite side. As we were moving our tents over and trying to find the stakes to keep them from blowing over, they blew over! Our new one was hard to get back up right but we did it without breaking anything. The old one, which wasn't as sturdy to begin with, ended up with a bent leg. It didn't seem to hurt it too bad as we were able to still use it and still take it down with no issues. Thankfully, that was the extent of our drama for the morning LoL

Adam began his game as goalie. That boy has some balls when he is in the goal, too. He may be little, but he is not afraid. He was running out to the ball even if the ball wasn't in the goalie's box. Thankfully he is smart enough not to pick it up when it's outside of those lines and he kicked it. He is also fast enough to get back into the goal. That could also be due to my screaming at him to get back into the goal LOL. The second time he came out of the box the opposing team recovered the ball quickly. A hard, high kick that I thought was going way over Adam's head. Adam ran back toward the goal, jumped JUST in time, and got his fingers on it. Sadly, he wasn't tall enough to bat it down and it bounced off his fingers into the goal. It was an amazing play all around though, and the only goal the opposing team scored. Adam didn't score at all, even though he tried really hard and took quite a few shots on goal. However, we did end up winning 7-1! Trying to teach a bunch of 9yr olds what the mercy rule is, wasn't exactly working. All they knew is that they wanted to score but after they were up by 5, they were supposed to just pass the ball around to each other to get that practice in. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with the mercy rule. On one hand, it doesn't discourage the other team. It allows for practice skills amongst the winning team. On the other hand, though, what are we teaching them? Are we teaching them that if they are worse than another team (or person) that they should have to stop being good just so we don't feel bad about ourselves? It seems a bit counterproductive to me. I understand why the rule is in place but at the same time, is it worth it?

Anyway, that makes Adam's team undefeated so far and Kadie's on a losing streak. Jacob didn't play this week and Lexi and Sara haven't started yet. Lexi has been helping us with our referee duties with little complaining after I offered to pay her. Everyone was asking why she wasn't the center ref at this last game we refereed because she is a good ref. She won't be able to help out much longer though since she will be starting her own games at some point and with games beginning at other regional parks, I just am not committing to staying out there longer than I need to. Lexi has already refereed for 3 games, and myself for 2 games. If the games are not at Waipio, I am not volunteering her. I have too many kids playing in too many different places for me to have to commit to spending more time outside of our region. I swear I'm not a soccer scrooge, I just need other parents to volunteer... oh, and the coach for my son's team because it's not my responsiility to referee. It was last year when I was the coach, but this year I am just the team mom dammit!

Next week we have at least one game at Waipio and another game around the same time in Pearl City. No idea when the third game is as we have not gotten the schedule update yet. I am so impatient. I need this info so I can figure out how my kids are getting where. Too bad Lexi can't drive yet ;)