This session brings us a nearly new line-up and a new team name. Your U4 team are The Bluejays. We saw lots of really great play including some very skillful ball handling from this group of players. Our returning players, Austin and Eileen, led the way, especially during practice with great energy and focus. Samuel, Ethan, Diego and Dominic jumped right in and showed themselves all to be more accomplished players than I'd have expected. They all played with lots of enthusiasm and had a great time. Samuel and Ethan are especially adept ball handlers already. This will be a fun group to work with and I'm looking forward to helping each player build on their skills.
The snack schedule is mostly filled with just the last two dates still open. The Lakkis family (Diego) will be handling the snack next week and we play at 10:30 AM on field A.
The U6 Sharks picked-up where they left off with just one hitch: they didn't seem to think that their light blue shirts are the right color for "Sharks" so they wanted a new name. Among the many suggestions the silliest was "The Strawberries", from Elizabeth I think, and when I repeated that one back to the whole team with some embellishment ("the smelly, rotten, moldy blue strawberries?") it instantly won wide approval. So, your U6 powerhouse will now be known as The Strawberries. Fierce, huh?
Well don't be fooled by the name. These kids can play. While we did loose a few players from last session we picked-up four new teammates who showed right away that they will fit right in with the team's energetic style. In the first quarter we had Jackson in at keeper sporting a stylish keeper jersey to go along with his excellent play. He had three powerful clearing kicks that sailed over the attacking players and put our forwards right back into position to go at the other goal. Two of our new players, Noah Roach and Noah Steinmann led the way up front with help from Collin. Noah has played for me before and is famous for the power of his kick, left or right. He showed plenty of power in this game as well as his speed. But his partner, little Noah Steinmann, was just blazing fast and seemed to be everywhere at once. He also played with excellent intelligence, seemingly always aware of which direction he needed to be headed in. Collin balanced the two Noahs by smartly maintaining his position in the middle of the field. Karolyn and Kendall rounded out the side playing fullback for us. While they let their enthusiasm take them out of position frequently they did play with a lot of energy and Kendall was in the thick of things constantly.
In the second quarter Luke and Austin jumped into the fullback positions and were just impenetrable. They played smartly as a tandem, covering the field and anticipating the action. Luke even struck out into offense when the situation was right. Austin never let the ball get past him and, as he pointed out to me several times, kicked the ball a lot! Sam, Elizabeth and Aiden were in offense for us and they began pressing the other team immediately. Elizabeth played so toughly, crashing into the crowd to get to the ball and Aiden was right there with her. Sam moved elegantly in and out of traffic with the ball stuck to his feet and eventually got through the other side's defense to score.
In the third Elizabeth went in as keeper so Jackson could play in the field and she was tough as nails making a couple of great stops and being very patient in making good outlet passes. Jackson played a very smart midfield/striker position, repeatedly allowing the Noahs to take the ball up one side or the other and then dashing up the middle for his chance to drive a pass in. Noah and Noah played fiercely without getting a good chance at a goal but that's how it goes some times.
In the final quarter we had goals from Aiden and Sam both getting us to a nice 3-3 tie. Collin was solid in goal for us and with Luke and Austin's help kept the other side from getting ahead late.
Just a great game all around. I wish we had more practice time because this is such a great group with so much potential. Oh, well, we'll do the best we can with the time we have. The snack schedule is filled out, thanks. Thanks to Karolyn's mom for picking-up snack this week. Next Saturday we play at 9:40 again on field A and Austin's folks are getting the snack.
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