Black Berries and Sharks. Week Five.

The Sharks lead off Saturday with a convincing win that included goals from Sam E., Austin and Elizabeth. Sam's first was a long distance shot that found it's way over and through the defense from about ten yards out. Austin was showing some great ball handling skill and managed his goal after very persistently pressing into the defense until he was within range for a tap-in. We had great, energetic play from everyone else too including a beautiful one-on-one stop in goal that Kendall made.

The Black Berries played with their usual precocious teamwork and scored plenty of goals without meeting much resistance. I think we had goals from everyone but Eileen. They have all learned to move toward the goal when a teammate has the ball and they have all shown that they can effectively cover on defense rather than just chasing the ball. They are an impressive group.

I want to thank all the players for being so patient with me this week. I've had a terrible cold and as I greeted each team I let them know that and asked them to be extra cooperative so that I wouldn't have to raise my voice too much. They were all wonderful and a pleasure to work with as usual. See you Saturday.

Sharks. Week Four.

Sorry to have taken so long to update the blog. The Sharks were on fire this week, scoring six goals. Sam E. was particularly hot, scoring three on his own. Then later in the game he made a few really good passes across the middle to get his teammates involved in the attack. We had additional goals from Elizabeth and Austin and Xavier, I think. The Sharks' real strength in this game was their defense. All of our defenders were doing wonderful work playing as a team. Brennan had a mighty clearing kick that went from near our goal all the way to the other team's goal. Combine that kind of play with all the great goalie work we had and the other team had a tough time even getting close to a shot. See you next week.

Black Berries. Week Four.

Just another great game for the Black Berries with goals coming from everywhere and our kids completely dominating the ball. There was one moment that told the whole story: In the third quarter Samuel picked-up the ball just on our side of midfield and near the glass. His teammates were all fairly close to him when he got the ball but the moment he broke out of the crowd and began streaking up the side three other Black Berries, Carson, Jagger and Austin I think, broke off and headed right for the goal. It looked like some sort of choreographed routine. The other team had two Coaches on the field and I could hear them both sort of groan when they saw that.
I also want to point out that while Dominic was in his usual cherry-picking spot he was also consistently sprinting back to our goal to cover on defense. That is big.
No game next week. See you on the 26th.

Sharks. Week Three.

The Sharks outscored their opponents this week and that's good but the overall feel of the game was disorganized. Perhaps due to the week off we had a lot of aimless running without focus on the ball and there wasn't as much team work as we'd seen in the past. Everyone was full of energy though and they were all having fun. McKenzie, our player who is newest to the game, is doing very well and seems to be picking things up quickly. Kendall, our player who has been at it the longest, seemed, again, on the verge of some sort of breakthrough showing flashes of ball handling brilliance.
The Tabelings have the snack next week. See you then.

Panthers. Week Two.

Last week the Panthers couldn't stay spread out enough to effectively move the ball into the other half of the field. This week, after a very brief practice, they corrected that problem and played like a different team. I know we lost but the number of chances we had to score, especially in the second half, was a dramatic improvement. By the second half the Panthers were beginning to develop a very consistent attack with players getting out ahead of the ball and if they keep that up they will come out on top soon. Many of our players are too slow to the ball and seem a bit intimidated by their opponents. I think everyone will improve in that regard as we play more. So while I did find some parts of the game frustrating I am, in retrospect, really pleased with the hard work the team did today. Let's keep rolling Panthers!

Thanks to the two Daves for their help in practice and to Dakota's mom for the snacks.

Black Berries. Week Three.

Wow! The Black Berries were attacking the other goal with such a (relatively) unified purpose that the other team was completely overwhelmed. We had Samuel, Ashley and Jagger driving the ball down the field over and over and Carson and Dominick waiting in goal for passes and rebounds. The result was a lot of goals. Normally I don't pay attention to the score and I always want to see both teams play well but yesterday our opponents included a few players who were vigorously throwing elbows rather than trying to play the ball. I was pleased to see the Black Berries endure that with cool-headedness and then give it back in the way that matters: scoring goals. Great game Black Berries!