Soccer 2015

Soccer season for the boys lasted two months this year: all of May and June, and they played two nights a week: Tuesday and Thursday. Kanyon was in the U-8 league, and Jonah and Micah were in the U-11. Micah originally chose not to play, because of the bad experience he had last year with the coach and their team's losing record. But 2 weeks into this year's season, Jonah had his first game, and Micah watched the game and decided he DID want to play.  He said he thought the coach was good, and also he said the team needed him, and he was right on both accounts. Jonah's coach Josh Olsen was very calm and organized, and the team was primarily younger and needed experience and speed: both of which Micah had. Micah was happily welcomed onto the team two weeks late, and it turned out to be a positive experience for him, which I'm so gald. 

I coached Kanyon's team with Daniel Bertram, and early on in the season, Daniel was gone a lot, so I coached alone. Unfortunately, Kanyon's team and the twins' team had identical schedules, which meant they always played at the exact same time. Since I was coaching alone, I didn't get to see many of the twins' games. Josh watched their games in May, but then in June, the game nights switched from Thursdays to Tuesdays, which is when he and Ammon do Men's Golf League, so he couldn't watch any of the games in June. There were a few games in June that I had Daniel coach, just so I could go to the other field to watch Jonah and Micah play so they'd have someone cheering them on. The soccer fields are all right next to each other on the high school grass, so when I wasn't coaching, I was able to watch all the boys play--I would stand in between the fields, and cheer on the twins for the most part, and when they had quarter or half-time breaks, I would turn around and cheer on Kanyon's team, too. 

Jonah and Micah's team tied two of their games, but lost the rest. Some of the teams they played against were stacked, which is how it's always been. They were prepared for that this year, though, so losing to some of the other teams didn't seem to bother them like it has in the past. I was glad they focused more on how well they individually played during the game and how many points their team DID score instead of being concerned with just losing another game. Jonah and Micah were both assets to the team, they were leaders and always played their best. Their main position was striker, and they almost always played the entire game in that tiring position, along with teammate Hunter M. Micah also played the goalie a couple of times, which he really liked, but he didn't get to play it more because the coach wanted him as a striker, since he was one of the strongest in that position, scoring for the team in most of the games. Jonah scored in every single game as a striker, sometimes multiple times, and he really enjoyed playing that position. 

Jonah going for another goal

I love that he sticks his tongue out to focus

He's got strong legs!

The 3 main strikers: Micah, Jonah, and Hunter.
I thought it was funny they were wearing identical shorts in this game!

Micah going for the goal

That's an amazingly high kick!

Jonah's got Micah's back!

He's adept at keeping control of the ball

Kanyon's team won 4 games, and lost 4: they started off strong in the first half of the season, but seemed to get worse as the season progressed, no matter how much we practiced improving different skills. They all worked really well together at the beginning, but several of the kids seemed to get more shy about getting the ball instead of aggressive, and it affected everyone. Also, we rotated the goalie position between every player (because they all wanted turns, and we felt like they all deserved to have the chance), and not all of them were particularly good at it, so a lot of balls went into the net, which contributed to our losing as well. We did have some good, strong players that were our core, and Kanyon was one of them! We had some excellent girl players too, they were firecrackers on the field, so determined and fast, and it was fun to coach their team and watch the kids play! Kanyon played all 3 positions: Forward, Defender, and Goalie. He scored a lot as forward, he always had his eye on the ball as defender, and he saved a lot of balls from going into the net as a goalie. He really understands the game, and he has grown into such an awesome player!

Such a straight kick, such a determined face!

A very serious goalie!

This was his favorite picture I took of him

This was my favorite picture I took of him!