Michael has had fun with his Boys Under 5 team. The games are a challenge for the coaches, simply to get the boys to pay attention and remember to play. It is a solid, nuturing program, though. The three-on-three format, with active involvement of the coaches and the freedom to stop the action or substitute players at will is well-suited to the attention spans of little boys.
Kelly has had a different sort of year. After going very deep into the playoffs last year in her first year in the Under-10, this year's team has gone winless. The girls have generally kept a very positive outlook, although they have been disappointed with the losses. There have been some blowouts, but they have managed to stay in most of the games. The year started well for Kelly: she scored the first goal of the year to turn the tide in what was headed toward a disasterous beatdown, then she scored in the next two games. She began the season as one of the apparent offensive weapons, but too often she was not paired with other solid offensive players, and her productivity as a striker waned. She is a very complementary player, who sees the field well and passes intelligently but is not always very fast on the ball, which makes her ideal for midfield or defense. Her coach has started using her as one of the featured defenders and (like last year) in goal, which has yielded dividends. This past weekend, the Red Hot Sparkplugs won their first game in convincing fashion. It was obvious to me that the coach, who has been even-handed in his personnel rotations to the detriment of outright winning, put his best lineup on the field for the first quarter: his tiny but clever twin daughters as wingers, a tall, strong but somewhat awkward girl at striker, Kelly and another aggressive defender at the side backs and one of Kelly's teammates from last year as center back. I confirmed with the coach later that the fully intended to go for the jugular with that lineup, and it paid off immediately, with three goals in the first ten minutes. By the end of the game, the girls, parents and coaches were giddy with the win. It was nice to see the payoff for all the hard work over the course of the season.
The irony is that the win came against the team of Kelly's best friend, plus another girl from Kelly's team last year. Kelly had been looking forward to the game all year; I think Kelly and her friend were both a little shocked that it turned out the way it did. After the game, though, they couldn't stop kicking the ball around after they came over to the little boys' field to watch their brothers play (on the same team):
It has been a good year for Kelly, whose skills have improved dramatically. Next year, though, she will go back to being one of the little kids, one of eleven on the field at the same time. She loves the game and likes to improve, so we can't ask for more than that.
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