Soccer Stars

I have become a "Soccer Mom," and truth be told, I've loved every minute of it.  Both the girls have played our local spring soccer season in Sturgis for 2 years now.  It's at a very instructional and fun level.  We only play other teams from Sturgis and focus on the fundamentals of soccer.  It's a one month time commitment and my girls have enjoyed that.  At the end of the spring season we were given a note about tryouts for the travel soccer team, which I immediately dropped in our recycle bin.  I knew we were not ready for that level, nor did I want to commit to traveling every weekend.  A month or so later, I was contacted by Olivia's spring soccer coach asking me if I would let her tryout.  He really wanted her on the team.  We talked about it as a family.  It was a big commitment for time, financially, and much more competitive.  Of course Olivia was thrilled at the idea and we proceeded.  She made the team, but truth be known, we barely had enough girls to field a travel team.  This is the first year Sturgis has ever had a girls travel team this young.  In addition our team was very young and inexperienced compared to the teams we would be facing from Kalamazoo, Portage, and Galesburg.  Those towns did have tryouts and many cuts to make the team.

Post season celebration.  Pile on the coaches.

A team photo after the last game.  The girls were being superstitious and wouldn't let me take a photo prior, because it would jinx their chances of winning.

A pregame photo from their first game of the season in Galesburg.  

They grew a lot as  team since this photo was taken.  Most of the players went in to the season with not much experience, although we do have a few that are standouts.  Under the coaching staff of Matt Sutter, Ramon Lugo, and Geoff Smith, these girls learned teamwork, how to be aggressive, and work together as a team.  They learned sportsmanship, how to lose gracefully, and looked phenomenally better by their last game. Thank you coaches for your commitment to our girls.  The season consisted of 8 games.  We played 4 teams each twice, once at their home field, and once at our home field. They ended the season with one tie and no wins, but got better with every game.  The first game against every team usually resulted in a wallop of a loss.  By the second time we played each team, it truly was a competition and the girls held their own well.  They seemed to come alive by the second half of every game, often giving up no goals at all in the second half and showing much more aggression and running plays like the pros.

Olivia saving a goal.

Early in the season, they tried Olivia out as a goalie.  After two games I think everyone realized that wasn't Olivia's strong suit.

Number 3 running the ball down field.  

Olivia and Brooke working together.

Olivia getting ready to pass the ball to Brooke.  Olivia had no goals herself for the season, but this play resulted in an assist while Brooke scored a goal.

This picture shows the size of players our girls were often up against.  My number 3 and Kalamazoo's number 3 are a little mismatched in size.

I loved this picture here.  It's hard to see, but that's Olivia behind her good friend Quinn.  I thought it was neat how they were running in synchronized form down the field together.  

Traveling to away games meant eating out a lot, which is always fun, and we also met up with Csaba, Kristian and their kids after one game.  (My zoom lens was on, so I didn't manage any photos because they were too close up).  I think we were ready for soccer season to come to an end, but look forward to it resuming again in the spring.  Travel soccer was a year commitment so the same group of girls will play again in the spring.  Hopefully they can add some wins to their record at that time.  For now, swim season has be resurrected.  Olivia definitely keeps active, and we are thrilled she has found some activities that she is passionate about.