Game Three. Snowflakes and Elbows were flying.

With only eight players on hand everybody got a real workout. Thanks to the snow the kids all showed up in a very up-beat mood and were anxious to play. We had at least two goals from Mason and another that Mason and Annie basically shared. We really had a lot of great chances where one or more of our players was in position in front of the goal and just missed their shot. Also we again had some good defensive play although we really missed Nate.
Thanks to the Hammons for the snacks.

Game Two

We only had eleven players for this game and that made it easier to get everybody their minutes. I did however get one complaint after the game that the playing time wasn't getting shared evenly. If that is happening I apologize. I want to assure all the parents that I and everyone else who volunteers with NKYA want every kid who participates to have a positive experience. I love the game myself and I take the opportunities I get to share it with young players very seriously. I want them all to have fun and really get hooked on soccer and want to work at learning the game. So if anybody feels that their kid isn't getting enough out of our practices and games talk to me. I want to hear it.

As for the game...I think we had four goals, a couple from Owen and at least one more from Nate I think. I want to especially mention Nate. He is a fireball on the field and at two points in the game when the other team was right on top of our goal Nate stubbornly refused to let them put it in. It was awesome.
Kendall also had a great game and came very close to scoring a goal. She has come so far since the summer. It's great to see.

Thanks to the Romitos for this week's snack. The Hammons are on deck for next week. See you then.

The Big Apple

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.

Winter II starts January 11th

The new session starts this week and we have a full roster of 10. I've got four returning and six new kids. Here's the line-up:

Mason Hammons
Camden Schwartz
Nathan Griffith
Max Lause
Kaleb Lighthall
Madelyn Schroth
Kendall Romito
Collin Flaherty
Chase Beck
Owen Michels

See everybody Sunday!

December 14th

In practice before the game we worked on trying to play as pairs or teams within the team. They all just liked the sound of this, clamoring "I wanna be a team! Who's on my team!" I was happy with how the kids took to that and during the game they really showed some great progress in understanding how to work together to move the ball around. We had good success in getting most of the kids to move to positions away from the ball so as to set up for shots. We'll keep focusing on this in the last practice/game. We always want to be working on ball skills but once the kids get the basic idea of the game the next big hurdle is helping them develop a sense for how the game moves on the field and how they can use the field, that is, how they can take advantage of the open space.
Whitney had what may be the longest goal shot on record. Luke and Mason had nice goals and Owen and Kendall both had nice assists.

December 7th

Great game today! I'm starting to see some really smart play from everybody with several of the kids getting the idea of how to play "away from the ball". Our Defense was very strong thanks to Riley.
We had goals from Whitney, Mason and Luke. Kendall had an assist! Next week we'll try to work on getting everyone into position to take a shot on goal.

Here are the Blue Blueberries ready to kick-off in the second quarter of Sunday's game. As with every kick-off, the in-huddle conversation was about who was kicking off with everyone certain that it's their turn. They worked it out.
We had goals from Whitney (2) and Owen (3) with assists from Luke and Mason. Luke has turned into some kind of serious player. Mason adopted a cherry-picking strategy that didn't work out this week but maybe next game. Everybody was really into the game with especially good touches from Collen and Kendall. Thanks to the Romitos for the snack.
Next week's game is at 2:00 PM on field B. The Jones family will be providing the snack.