Ah, the last few weeks have been...interesting. We lost our game, mostly because the boys forgot that they were playing soccer on a team, not individually. The other team wasn't that good; they had one kid who was a good kicker, but that was enough!


The last two weeks we've been working on positioning -- keeping the forwards on the sides of the field; they tend to clump together and then there's no-one to pass to. This has been a real struggle! Hopefully they'll figure it out by Sunday.

Sunday happens to be picture day...don't know why they changed! The last few years it's always been on a weeknight. So...we take pictures in the morning, then I have to leave in the middle of the game to take the picture with my daughter's team. Sigh.

Finished referee class; still mad at the parents for not stepping up. However, my son is also playing on the team, otherwise I would let them miss the playoffs completely -- but I feel that Ian works hard, and deserves to go. Of course, the way they are playing lately we'll be out in the first round...

Ah, practice practice practice. Of course, only 5 of the litte buggers came to practice last night.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't get him to kick the soccer ball.

The rascals were quite wound up, so they spent half the practice running wind-sprints and jogging around the field. Nothing like a little excercise to sharpen the quiescent thirst for knowledge! Seriously, these kids are out of shape. Last year's bunch could play three quarters and just be winded. Our goalie wore out in just one quarter out of the box!

So the new regimen will be:

Windsprints
Ball drills
Windsprints
Technique
Strategy
Small soccer game.

Hope it works!

Well, we had our first BU10 game. No, I won't keep you in suspense, we actually won. I was a bit surprised at this, since we had only one practice, and none of the kids looked like they ever played soccer before.

The team we played had some pretty good players; one scored four goals (basically unassisted.) Unfortunately, he only had some help in one quarter -- their breakdown was worse than ours!

On our part, we had some real surprises. I put some of our smaller kids in defense, and they turned out to be ferocious little priranahs! If I can get the goalie issues worked out, we might have some real possibilities. Oh, and they named themselves the StarBlazers.

As for the U6 girls, we had a little meeting and quasi-practice, since the game was cancelled. They named themselves the Pink Flamingoes! One girl cried and wouldn't play; we have another who looks like she will score 6 goals/game.

Went to U6-U7-U8 referree class Saturday too. When will these meetings end!!!!!

Well...we had our first practice. I could tell the other coaches were watching us...trying to see what secret plays we have, how good our players are...how badly they might get beaten...

Oh well, at least we have our uniforms now. The uniforms are blue with black shorts. The boys decided to call their team the Starblazers. I diagrammed the only real play we have, which is just passing down the field. Half of the team had trouble passing the ball, and ALL of the team is in terrible shape. Our first game is Saturday...I somehow dread to see just how we will do. Not that I think we have to win all the time, but I think the boys will start to feel bad if we lose all the time. Last year, when one of our better kids got hurt (walking across a parking lot, not on the field!) we had a bad streak and the kids were getting sort of depressed. I think that some of the other coaches are going to be hard-core; I really don't enjoy playing games with them. I want the boys to have a good time!

Well, that and win some times...

Well, today is our first practice in U10. We have some boys who have never played soccer, some that have played for years. We'll see how this works out in the "competitive" league!

We still don't have any new refs for the boys. Our girls team has two, so that's a good thing. Hopefully some of our parents will step up here...

The name for this blog came from the Godzilla movie we were watching at the time. Some wierd dragonfly thing was attacking Godzilla. Hard to believe this sort of movie was made in 2000!

Well, they are really dropping the hammer on us this year: if we don't have any refs for U6, we can't get uniforms. If we don't have any refs that work in U10, we don't get to go to the playoffs.

Unfortunately, what we are seeing is the same group of people who coach, commission, mark the fields, etc...are the only ones who are volunteering! (Although for some reason there is always a waiting list for snack coordinator...)

I have team meetings set for this week, girls start games next week!

Well...it is AYSO soccer time again.

We had a lottery to decide practice times for the U10s, U12s and U14s....

Then the U10 teams got restructured. This is a good thing, because we want balanced teams -- nobody wants to get creamed all season! Unfortunately, that means a spate of phone calls. Unfortunately, since we have practice two days a week, and some of the boys can't make Mondays, and some of the boys can't make Wednesdays this means that some of the boys won't see each other except for game day!

U6 looks pretty easy in comparison: we practice 1/2 hour before the game, then play. We don't have uniforms yet, so no team name. From past experience, the girls will pick a name like the Flying Pink Daisys, or Powerpuff Pillows. The boys will pick something like the Purple Bullets, or Green Dragons, or -- my personal favorite to day -- the Lightning Blades.

But hey! Everybody plays and we all have fun! At least, that's what I tell myself whilst icing my ankles after practice.