With our new red shirts the name "Apples" occurred to some of the kids so we are the Fierce Red Apples. (They always want to include the color in the name!). Our first game and practice went very well even though, to state the obvious, we have a large roster. Two players were added on game day to give us a total of twelve kids. I'm ok with this. I hate to turn away kids who want to play. I'll manage the playing time to get everyone plenty of minutes and I expect that we'll have more than a few weeks where less than the full roster shows up.
A few of the kids will be due to move up to U7 soon and that can be a big jump. I'm going to try having those older 4s play together at least one quarter each game as I think that beyond ball skills or size the thing that will serve them best as they move up is a well developed sense of how to play as part of a team. As I said in an earlier post I think that for the younger kids the goal is to start them on developing some basic ball skills and get them to grasp the basic concepts of the game, i.e., what your supposed to do with the ball when you get it. But for the older kids the big conceptual leap is in learning to cooperate and take in more of the field. I can say from experience with my daughter's U7 and U9 teams that the first time the kids get that feeling of running together with a purpose, like a pack of wolves, that's the moment they really get hooked on the game.
In our first game our one successful shot on goal was from Chase. The shot was from about 10 yards out! A very strong kick. Annie gets credit for an assist on that one. Everyone else played well. Lots of good effort.
Next weeks game is at the same time and the Romitos will be providing the snack.
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