Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Girls Soccer Update

Since I updated the boy's football yesterday, I thought I would update on the girl's soccer. My daughter is playing with two teams this season. The rec team which I coach and the Academy team which I relax and watch. They play different formats and there is only one other girl which is on both teams.

Our rec team started practicing over a month ago and we participated in a local tournament prior to the start of the season. It was a good experience, which is what people that get their asses kicked say to make themselves feel better. The truth is we are a third division that was playing a bunch of first division teams and the difference was noticeable. By the last game we were playing with more fire though and went into half time tied 1-1. In the end they pulled away, but the game was intense enough that I had to pull aside screaming parents from the other team after the game.

The tournament got the girls fired up and more focused after practice. It also showed me what things we needed to work on. We're now 3 games into our season and are undefeated. None of the games have been in any real question and although I don't know anything about our next opponent I think we have made great strides and have a very real chance of going 10-0. My daughter has played well. She's scored two goals and set up several others. The girls still have work to do, but look a lot more organized and confident out there. In our last game, I had to pull girls back from offense because we were up by so many goals.

The parents are of course thrilled that we've been looking so good, but I realize that we will likely be moving up a division or two next season and I don't want them to get overconfident. I also don't want the girls to get accustomed to being able to get away with sloppy play. They might be able to slide with it this season, but not against the good teams next time we play a tournament or move up. Oh well, it's a metered excitment.

The academy team has started out 0-2-1, but has been showing improvement each week. I know it's killing the coach that she only has one evening a week to work with the girls, but I'm ok with the results so far. Most of the girls are going to quit playing with their rec teams next season to concentrate on the Academy team, but I don't think that's going to be the case with us. My daughter likes her rec team, and I enjoy coaching too much. Besides I think that the best teacher for the game is playing the game so the more the better.

In the first game with the Academy team the girl looked uncomfortable and got herself out of position a number of times. By midway through the second game I could see that she was making the adjustments and was placing herself well and becoming more involved. In the third game she had an assist and took a couple of shots that went wide. One of them just barely. It's fun for me to see her continue to figure things out and progress out there. She is by far the littlest one on the field as she's playing up a year, but she's starting to assert herself in the game.

For anyone that wants to keep up with the Academy team you can find their results here. The academy team that she is on is called The Reds of Liverpool.

http://www.primetimefiles.com/tourn_sched.cfm?id=470

OK, I'm done with proud daddy talk.

7 comments:

Churlita said...

I think it's great that you're so involved. She probably really appreciates it too.

hey, I think that's the first non smart ass comment I've made on here. Yea me.

Tera said...

Wow, two teams should keep her on her toes!

What an awesome dad you are Dagromm...kudos!

Dagromm said...

Churlita - Thanks. I think that she likes me being involved most of the time. When it comes to the games where I'm not the coach, I just try to sit back and shut up unless she asks for my opinion/advice.

Tera - It does keep her on her toes. Sometimes she's proud of how busy her schedule is and other times she's exhausted by the thought of it. I'm always exhausted by the thought of it.

I'm glad that the girls find the practices fun and look forward to them. Last week they whined when practice was over, because they wanted to keep going and a couple of the girls asked if we could do practice again the next day. That's the kind of thing that gives a coach the warm and fuzzies. So this week I made sure to make them run multiple wind sprints at the end of practice so they wouldn't whine about it being over too soon.

fringes said...

Proud Daddy talk is never done.

Dagromm said...

Fringes - When you're right you're right.

Rake said...

Ohh, that's freakin awesome!! She's, what, 7 years younger than me and doing better than I've ever done or could ever do!!! I mean, the only goal I ever scored was the only one of our season because our team sucked, and it was the 3rd and last season I played!!! Wow, I guess some people are just more cooridinated than others....

Dagromm said...

Rake - She's not the best out there, but she doesn't give up. In her case it's all about will power.