Penelope's Soccer Season

My mom reminded me I haven't posted in a while so I'm going to try to post a few before I have Christmas things to post about.

Penelope played on the high school JV soccer team this year.  She had less experience than most of the girls but she worked hard and did a great job.  She got to play the forward position which she was excited about.  She went about half the season without scoring a goal, but  after she did score one she was able to score quite a few.  It was really exciting for her.

When the season ended the coach gave her the most improved player award.  She got so much better during the season I'm glad her coach noticed.  She made friends on the soccer team and had a great experience.  

Tucker made a highlights video for her.

Penelope's Soccer Season

Penelope worked hard and made it onto the middle school soccer team.  I was proud of her but also felt for the 20ish girls who didn't make it.  I really wish school sports were all no cut, but funding doesn't allow.

She got to play forward just like she wanted and she did awesome!  

She played on the JV team which she was happy about.  I guess the JV team is where her friends were.  She also noticed the JV team girls were more supportive and it was an all together more positive environment.

Penelope had many great plays and several assists that led to goals.  She shot at the goal several times but unfortunately she never made a goal.  She wanted to so badly. 

I'm really happy with her effort.

Kobra Soccer

I gathered together pictures from Tucker soccer season.  He got to play on the high school varsity team as a Freshman here in Sasebo.  The first picture is of the entire soccer team on their awards night.  The coach likes to talk and we were there for three hours.  A few other teams were doing awards as well, but it was a long night.  

Tucker's team traveled to play.  He only had one weekend where they played two home games, and those were the last games of the season.  All the other weekends Tucker got to miss school all Friday and sometimes Thursday as well to travel and he wouldn't come back until Saturday night or even Sunday.  On top of that he had practice everyday after school until 5ish, so we never really got to see him.  He also had to be taken to base or picked up late at night or early in the morning.   Lots of weekends I had to drop him off around midnight.  The bus would drive the entire night and they would play a team in Tokyo around 5pm the next day.  Most weekends he traveled about 5 hours away to play, and one time they even flew.  

The team worked really really hard but they never actually won a game.  Their first home game was one of the last of the season but the first game they didn't have to travel to and they got to have their family and friends watch and they tied the champion team.  It was really exciting for everyone.  I think they could have done better if they didn't have to travel to every game.

Tucker did not get a ton of playing time but he was happy to be on the team.  The coach couldn't bring all the players on the away game they flew to and Tucker was worried he would be one of the three boys who didn't get to go.  Luckily he got to go, and he was thrilled.  The coach said he improved a lot over the season and I agree.  This was Tucker's first time playing on a more serious team.

Overall, it was a little hard on us to have Tucker gone all the time.  We missed him and his grades did suffer.  Tucker absolutely loved it though and he worked really hard and made friends so he definitely wants to do it again next year.

Soccer Season

We've been busy the last couple months with soccer!  This season Penelope, Scarlett, and Leon all signed up.  I got really lucky because all their practices were at the exact same time.  Scarlett's and Leon's fields were right next to each other and Penelope's was only like 2 minutes away.  I rotated who's practice I watched and we had a good system down.  Because games were Fridays and Saturdays we had soccer four days a week, but I loved it.

Penelope got to play in the 9-11 all girl age group.  There was a huge size difference among the girls and Penelope was definitely on the small side.  She did great though and held her own.  It is nice that she is getting a little older.  I was able to drop her off early and pick her up late, because I needed to be at the other practices.

One of her coaches moved during the season and the other wasn't very reliable so she had a few extra coaches as well.  One of them wasn't very nice and I had to email and ask him to not only play the girls evenly but to be kind to them.  I don't feel like I'm over protective, but the girls should not be leaving the game in tears because the coach is telling them they played badly.  I really don't care if they win, but I do want my child to play their fair share of the game regardless of skill.  The whole things was a little funny because Penelope plays pretty well.  I'm not sure why she sat out almost an entire game and other girls played the whole game.  It is not like they are in the professionals or even a team that they had to try out to be on.  We are in it for fun, and that is what this league is supposed to be about.

 I was only able to take pictures of one game because of Beatrix and Calista.  Too bad it was a night game and they played against another pink team so the girls had to wear the pennys.

Penelope's team, the Flying Flamingos, even had a few away games that she had to travel on the bus without us for.  She was very nervous about that, mainly the lunch part, but she did it.  She had to be gone all day and was scared to order her own lunch at the food court, it was good for her to get out of her comfort zone a little bit.

Leon totally rocked soccer this year.  He had never played before and so we were surprised when he was getting like 9 goals in a game.  He did awesome and ran really hard.  I think it was because he is used to roughing it with his older siblings.  Toward the end of the season he did stop scoring as much.  I'm not sure if it is because the other kids got better or what, but even on those games he did play the about 90% of the games.

His coaches were kind of lame.  They kept cancelling practices and didn't even show up at all for the last game.  There was no communication about that so we were all surprised.  A parent of the other team was able to step in for us.  One of the coaches had twins so whenever they didn't show up they were three kids down.  Hence Leon got to play a lot.  They usually only had one or two subs.  I shouldn't really complain about the coaches because they were volunteer and I wasn't willing/able to do it myself.

 Leon's team was called the Sharkdragons and they were a coed 5-6 group.

Leon was nervous at first to play because he had never done it before but he really ended up loving it.  I expect he will want to play again next year.

Scarlett's team was called the Jellyfish and they were coed 7-8 year olds.  Her coaches were pretty good and fair.  Out of all the coaches I think I liked them the best.  They didn't seem to care at all if the team won.  And by that I mean all the kids played all the positions evenly.  The coaches always showed up to practice and seemed to know what they were doing.

I was surprised that Scarlett even wanted to play soccer this year, but she did.  In general she doesn't like to play running around games as much as the other kids, but she really tried hard for soccer.

Her last game was probably her best and her worst.  She was guarding the goal and someone scored on her.  The ball rolled right past her and she totally missed it.  Then one of the other kids made some sort of comment and she started crying.  I felt really bad for her.  She had also told me earlier that when the scrimmage some of the people try not to be on her team and they say they don't want to be on her team because she is the worst one.  We had a talk about how that made her feel and how she wants to never make others feel that way.  Anyway, later in the game after she totally missed the ball she scored a goal!  It was her first of the season and very exciting.  She even dribbled it down and took a legitimate shot.  It wasn't just a right place at the right time type of thing.  I kind of got a picture of it.

I am proud of her for working hard all season even though it isn't something that comes as naturally for her.  She even said she wants to sign up again next year, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that she will be old enough to be on the same team as Penelope.

I'm really happy with the sports program here on base.  It is very affordable and pretty low key.  Now for a break before basketball starts.