Football

Because Roman had so much time in the 4 hours between the end of school and bedtime. And Scouts, soccer, homework and dinner just were leaving him with one hour of pure boredom... he signed up for flag football too.

I don't know if it was lucky or unlucky, but all of our soccer schedules and football schedules only overlapped once or twice. Frankly, it would have been nice to have a valid excuse to skip some of them.

What I do know is that Roman didn't hit the jackpot of football teams this year. Poor kid. He LOVES to play football, but he was having a hard time enjoying it. I can't say that I blame him.  See my little "rant" bellow.,

Roman did manage to have fun. Most of the fun was had during half time, throwing the ball around and being silly. Roman got a couple sacks and "tackles" which he was super proud of. They did manage to win their first playoff game. And Roman is very hopeful for next year.

I just wish it wasn't the same 6 weeks as soccer.

So what was so bad?

While other teams were practicing A LOT... Roman's team had two practices before they started games. The first one, we were out and came home with a message that practice was "right now" and we had missed it. Nice. I guess at this first practice they had "try outs" for positions.

I won't say that Roman is a great football player, but I will say this. He can catch and throw a ball pretty well for his age and he can really kick a ball.  He's not a fast runner and he's no blocker (just not aggressive enough). But he can snap the ball pretty well.

He played on the line blocking (not snapping) almost the entire time.  If not that, he would play a decoy receiver (meaning the ball was never thrown to him) He never punted the ball, was never passed the ball. On the last game he was FINNALLY allowed to snap the ball and he did it very well. It was so discouraging for him. . And just as bad to watch.

Their team lost most of their games and all I can say is... no kidding.

I know it doesn't matter... trust me... I know how hard it is to be a volunteer coach but I will say.... If you are going to be the coach (and give your son the exclusive job of being the quarterback and punter).... you better: 1. show up (and let us know when to show up preferably 1 day in advance) 2. give it your best 3. be fair.  SIGH!

Anyway, here's hoping next year is better. Roman says that if next year is the same, he's quitting. And I said "OK"

Soccer

My life in September revolved around Soccer. When October came rushing in... I was SO glad.

Don't get me wrong. The whole month I was thinking... "what would I/we give up to make this month less crazy?" and there wasn't really anything. OK.... Coaching was not on my list of desires but even that was fun in it's own way. But, I was counting down the days and games. I think about 2 games in I was thinking.... "It's only been 2 games?!?!"

Here is a quick rundown of Soccer this year.

Ezra was a red dragon this year.

I wouldn't say that he really loved it. He wanted to make a goal SO bad, and he just isn't aggressive or fast enough to break away from the pack and make a goal.

Every time someone else made a goal he was angry.

I'm curious about if he will really want to play next year.

 

Marisa moved up to the older girls league this year.  That was fun, because the girls start to learn how to at least stay in their section of the field. They still clump up really bad though.  And since Marisa isn't aggressive she didn't get the chance to score either, but she did her best and liked it most of the time. Her team was the rainbow unicorns.

 

About half way through, she was starting to be tired of it though.

 

She made some friends and had fun being with her team.

 

 

Roman actually did pretty good this year. You all know that I coached his team (reluctantly). We've had enough bum coaches through the years that even though I didn't want to be coach, I was determined to do a decent job. I feel like I did ok, I was lucky enough to get a really good group of boys. Our team was the Red Fury.

Roman likes being goalie and he is actually pretty good at it. At this age, you really just can't be afraid of getting hit. He gets right in there and pounces on the ball. He has a great kick too and can kick the ball at least half way down the field every time.

Here is our crazy team. For the most part, it really was a lot of fun to coach them. If I could just erase the stress I feel with that responsibility, I would totally do it again.

The only problem with being goalie on our team was that a lot of the games were pretty boring defensively. The ball sometimes didn't even make it to that side of the field.  So defense chatted.

I didn't let him play goalie ALL the time though, and he managed to score at least 6 goals this season. Once the kids really start learning their positions and stay in them, he would get the ball and use that awesome kick to shoot it right in the goal. It was awesome!

 

What a kick!

One of my goals as coach was to have every boy score a goal. Or at least give them the chance because let's face it... that's the best part. I think in the end, only two of the twelve didn't score at least once. The two that didn't got SO close too.

They don't officially keep score and there is no tournament or anything but in the end, Roman's team won 8 of our 10 games. And one of those losses was REALLY close. If we played that team again, I bet Roman's team could win. AND the game that they really lost, our team scored the only two goals that had been scored on them all season. I was so proud of them.

 

I would love to coach again but oh the stress!!!! I age 10 years in one month.

 

Now soccer is over and it's like our life is back again. Glad we did it.... glad it's over. I sure wish we had spring soccer around here so we could split up the madness a little.