How Did You Get On? The 07-08 version...

[ian.curry]

Wow, your year is completely different to mine.

This year we will play a guaranteed 22 league games. We are also entered into 4 cups, so minimum 26 games, likely over 30.
I have not managed to arrange any pre-season fixtures due to holidays, although the above tournament had us in 6 games of 60 minutes.
We train once a week minumum for probably 45 weeks of the year, so usually over 50 sessions a season.

I would love to train twice a week, however the winters are very difficult as local astroturfs are very expensive, it would cost my team personally an extra £50 per week to get an extra hours training.

[Old Soccer Guy]

I just joined this forum and the second post I read was about a team from South Charlotte. That is strange. I am from North Carolina and play against South Charlotte teams. It is a growing and improving club (thanks in part to all the Brits they've hired).

I coach U18 and U13 girls, so I am not familiar with that particular team.]

[Val]

Well, I got my team last night, and I am very excited. There were four girls, any one of whom I would have been delighted to have, but who all decided to play co-ed, and so the talent level was a little dissapated for the all-girls league. This freed me to take my best player from last year, whom I had told earlier that I wouldn't take her because I wanted to recruit one of these other four. But Rani is now the best player in the league, barring some newcomer that I am not aware of, I think I can challenge her to be the player who will hold the ball and I'm going to try to get her to take over ball games. She likes the reactive nature of defense, but I'm going to turn her into a midfielder. LOL Or least give her lots of time to play there this year. There were two younger girls I wanted, who I had coached at YMCA ball two years ago (a vastly inferior league, even by our American standards), but both of whom had rather negative experiences playing co-ed last year, so I'm going to resurrect their games as well.

The only sad note is that my daughter has decided she'd like to play for the school team, and not for me. I'll miss her, but more than that, this is a bad decision I think on her part because she'll be playing full field and she doesn't have anywhere the stamina/speed to play full field. In her very specific case, SSG have been a godsend.

[Val]

Had a rollercoaster of a day yesterday. Got a call from the mother of one of the girls on my team, a younger girl (9 in a U11 league) who is very good and part of the reasoning behind my move to all girls, and this girl has decided to forgo soccer for swimming. Aargh. I'm not so worried about this team this fall, but I had big hopes for this girl with the travel team I'm trying to get together in the spring. She's just emblematic of the competition we have for players with other sports like lacrosse, field hockey (an unelegant game if there ever was one), softball (and now they've got a Fall Ball league), etc, etc, etc.

As I was driving to practice, though, I got a call from the grandfather of an equally strong player whose parents had never gotter registered in time. She had wanted to play co-ed U12 (and she can carry her weight), but the Easton teams were all full, and rather than being wait-listed, she'd decided she wanted to play for me! And she's got the reflexes and mentality to play keeper.

The grandfather called me because I'd been a big help letting him know about the impending end-of-registration deadline, getting him the forms once the deadline passed (and the on-line system was shut off), and ensuring that the registrar called him directly (which may have been the biggest challenge of all). The lesson: it pays to be involved in the organization of the club because I've become the handler for the girls game, so I'm getting the chance to work with one of the stud players in my target age group.

[darren_brady@msn.com]

hi guys sorry not posted for a while

my girls won today in our secong game at 11 a side
handled the space great and defence were brill at
offside strikers need a bit of work on watching the line.
season starts in 2 weeks can't wait

darren

[darren_brady@msn.com]

hi guys

just got back from the preston tournament where my girls won 5 games and drew 1 out of 6 to take the title.
really pleased that all my new players have all bonded well with the girls i have for 3 years, have found it hard to get new players because they such a tight group its hard for new players to fit in.
seem to have found 4 great players who have the same daft sense of humour as the rest.
looking firward to the up coming season hopeing for some tough competion.

darren

[74offsuit]

Looking good Darren, keep us posted.

[Jerzy]

First game next week, and then I get to post in this thread rather than just read about all your all's games. I can hardly wait, it even makes up for having a game on Labor Day weekend.

[lanesra]

Preseason game this morning. Didn't officially keep score, but we lost. I rotated lots of players every position, (we're doing 8v8 and I played a 2-3-2), discovered that the guy I thought might be my mainstay keeper is not going to suffice, was impressed with the mental toughness of two fine players, but that was negated by discovering the mental weakness of my best player who must have had two crying fits. All in all, a pretty typical first game for me. But all the kids voted to have an extra practice this week (since Monday is Labor Day) so we're going to get an session tomorrow.

[ian.curry]

We beat a local team 2-1 on Friday, just a short run out for the players we had. First game is later today - watch out for my -probably depressed- less than 20 word match report!!!