Wrinkled Thoughts

So I like to play soccer. Okay, I LIKED to play soccer. Now I'm the coach. This year, I coached 3 teams (Avery, Ethan and Isaac and Owen). At the moment, I am coaching a "competition" AYSO Summer Select team that gets to play in tournaments all over the state. I've enjoyed it so much, that I'm even thinking about getting my fat butt back in shape this summer so I can play Adult League soccer next fall… we'll see how that goes. Playing Adult League is what ended my career when my knees couldn't take the pounding I was giving them by adding an extra 50 lbs to my frame. I ended up blowing my right ACL and that was that.

Avery's Under 10 boys team went undefeated this year… it was great. I had a bunch of kids who really knew how to play. Avery was the best goalie in the league and can drop-kick the ball farther than anyone else his age. He's also faster than I thought. It's funny, because he doesn't have a real powerful pass/shot yet. I keep telling him it's because he needs to concentrate on the ball and make sure he strikes it correctly. Hopefully, it will come. His speed and ball skills make him a great mid-fielder though. I've plopped in a few videos on this page for your enjoyment.

[ACT]http://www.vonwrinkle.com/blog/movies/avery-shoot-post.wmv,320,265[/ACT]

The dribbler and post magnet

[ACT]http://www.vonwrinkle.com/blog/movies/avery-save.wmv,320,265[/ACT]

Ethan is fast and fiesty. And I can't believe the difference 2 years can make between age divisions. 8 year olds are just plain brain dead. They have an attention span of about 30 seconds and would rather pick daisies and dink around than actually play soccer. The 10 year olds are on it… the 8 year olds are not. Except for Ethan. For a kid who has made a living out of being a space cadet, he was the only one on his team who paid attention enough to play like he meant it. He routinely scored 3 or 4 goals per game and was usually the ONLY kid on his team scoring goals. He's built a lot like me when I was that age. I'm anxious to see how he does in the older divisions.

[ACT]http://www.vonwrinkle.com/blog/movies/ethan-shoot.wmv,320,265[/ACT]
Notice the use of the left foot? Nice…

Isaac and Owen… they played. They had fun… but I can't really call Under 5 soccer REAL soccer. They did show promise though. They aren't afraid to get in a mix it up and the usually knew which way to actually kick the ball, which is a MAJOR achievement for kids their age.

[ACT]http://www.vonwrinkle.com/blog/movies/owen-scores.wmv,320,265[/ACT]

Avery's camera skills aren't much… Look for #13 and#14 (I and O)

[ACT]http://www.vonwrinkle.com/blog/movies/owen-miss.wmv,320,265[/ACT]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 4:29 pm and is filed under General Wrinkles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.