Season Recap - Fall 2008

This ends our 1st full season in Comp, and the girls made huge strides from the Spring to the Fall.

When we started play in the Spring, I think we all knew right away how far behind we were as a team to be able to win at this level. But we then changed our original plan of practicing just once a week and went to twice a week and we were able to make up a lot of ground, especially in the Fall when for most of the year, we were able to get most of the girls to many of the practices. The problem is, with most of the girls starting high school this year, soccer took a back seat to many school activities and after school sports. It's really tough as a coach because while I want all the girls to get that full high school experience, it comes at the expense of team continuity. I think I just have to face the fact that it will be difficult to get practices with the "full team" any longer.

I think the turning point to this Fall season came weeks before District Cup when I started roll call for practices. This started a "commitment" from everyone to get to practices and from that point on, Ron and I saw a huge improvement in the girls play. This commitment paid dividends at our first District Cup where we ended up taking 2nd place out of 8 teams in our division. With each game in the Cup, you could see the confidence of the girls grow. It was special to see.

Including the Cup games, we finished the Fall season with a 6-6-2 record. I think we should have finished higher in league play, but we tied and lost to 2 teams below us in the standings, and those are points that are tough to lose. We ended up 1 point behind 2 teams that we tied and beat. But the luck of the draw had us playing the 1st place MVLA team twice, which no other team had to do. But no excuses. We should have finished as high as 5th but because we let some points slip away, we finished 7th.

Again, beating the 3rd place team and losing twice to the 1st place team by an aggregate score of 3-0 shows that we can more than compete with the best of the teams in this league. And with at least 8 of our girls (that I know of) playing for their high school teams, I know we will be much improved come 2009.

However, by comparison, I spoke to one of the coaches of the SASC Radicals (the team that beat us in the Cup final), and he said "all" their girls are playing for their high school teams.

For those girls that are NOT playing in high school, I challenge you to get better on your own. Tryouts for the team begin after the high school season, so don't wait until then to get in shape. If you want to continue playing at this level, you need to keep playing. Get out and kick the ball around with your brother, sister, mom or dad, or call one of your teammates. I'll try to get some informal "kickarounds" on the weekends for those girls not playing so that you can stay sharp. But don't wait for that to get out and run and kick the ball around. I know for a fact that we will have 3-4 new girls trying out for the team after the high school season, so it will be tougher to make the team in the Spring than it was this past year.

Thanks again to all the parents for getting your daughter's to practice and to games. I know it's a bigger commitment than playing in rec was, but if you are like me, I get such a kick watching them play that it is "so" worth the time and effort. I not only get to help shape their soccer DNA, but I get to watch them grow into the beautiful ladies they all are. I can't think of a better group of parents to work with and party with.

Also, huge thanks again to Ron and Chantal. Both have made my coaching experience enjoyful. I can't begin to say how much they both do for the team behind the scenes. But like I said before, please volunteer your time to Chantal. I know she has a lot on her plate and can use her help. Team Mom and Team Manager is really 2 to 3 roles and she is doing all of them right now, so don't be shy.

I'm looking forward to next season already, so keep an eye out for emails regarding practices for those not playing high school soccer.

Thanks

Dan

Game recap...Nov 8

MVLA at Fury
0-2

Apparently, we must have drawn the short straw as we were the only team to have to play the 1st place MVLA twice this season. The Ice Breakers are a team that plays our game better than we do. They have speed up front, well, one girl at least. But that one girl beat us for 2 goals and caused problems with her speed all day. It shows you what speed, skill, determination, and game sense can do when used properly and how dangerous it is when you put all 4 or those traits together. They were also tough in the back and frustrated our forwards the whole game. The bright side is they will definitely move up to the A bracket and our girls showed we can hang with them. Having said that, we have our work cut out for us if we want to ever reach their level.

MVLA was always talking to each other and more importantly, for each other. That is probably one our biggest weaknesses. For some of our girls, they are just very reserved or quiet. For others, they are quiet because they don't know what to say. Either way, our girls need to communicate to each other more on the field. Without it, it's like playing with blinders on. It may seem like a small thing, but you'd be surprised how much it can help in a game. Seeing another team talk and execute the way MVLA does is great for the girls to see. Beating a team similar to us is great, but I'd rather lose to a better team and learn lessons like this that are hard to preach in practice.

Unfortunately, playing MVLA twice hurt our chances for points in the standings and both the Mustangs and Quicksilver past us up in the standings with wins the past week. But I'm not worried about that. See my "Season recap" for the reason why and for a more detailed recap of Fall 08 and why I think we made some major strides to become a better team.

Thanks again to all the parents that helped with field setup.

Go Fury!

Dan