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A representative season of youth soccer in
Santa Cruz
By the fall of 2003, we had five out of our six children playing soccer every
week. That means at least one match per week per child, not to mention the
training sessions, about two per week per child. Nick was kind enough to
drive himself to his indoor soccer games, but the rest of the children depended on
the parents to meet their constantly shifting schedules. In fact, they also
depended on Nick at times when there were too many conflicting games,
which happened more regularly than we would have liked.
For example,
Alban would
have a competitive tournament over the hill in San Jose lasting all day Saturday and
Sunday. That took one parent all weekend. Then two of the three other Saturday games would clash, and of course were never on the
same field! The other parent would drive to one of those games, meaning that
both parents are now irremediably busy, and Nick would
drive to the other. Thanks Nick! Maybe the car was a good idea after all.
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This was Alex's second season with the Happy Valley
under 8s in the recreational league. He was in heaven, and lived for his
Saturday games and midweek training sessions. His 2003
Xmas list included
a soccer ball, goalie gloves, and a Manchester United shirt with Ruud van Nistelrooy's
name and number on it. He got them all!
His 2004 Xmas list included a
soccer ball and goalie gloves. he got them all too. We're not growing out of this in a hurry! |
Charlie graduated to the Under 9s developmental league,
a new league in the area put together by a group of local coaches and
soccer afficiandos. Their goal is to help the young people develop by
giving them better competition, in and out of their teams. Great idea,
guys! Charlie had a great time playing at a higher level. Thanks in
particular to Paul and Lynden Gooch for their respective contributions:
a great and human coach, and a little dynamo of a player who inspires
all around him to better things!
Here is more of Paul
and Lynden, with their Fall 2005 team.
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After a year with the Aptos Aftershocks (so named
because the boys in the team were all born around the time of the Loma
Prieta earthquake in 1989), Alban moved on
to the Santa Cruz Arsenal, another local under 14s Class 3 comp. team. He
had a rewarding season. We let him down earlier when we decided
(erroneously, we now believe) that we
just didn't have the time to cover a competitive team for him as well as recreational teams for
the other kids. We figured out how to do it that season (the key
factor was Nick driving the third car), and it was fun for all the family! |
Tom was our late starting soccer player, after two years
of rugby in France and a year in Pop Warner football. He played under 14
rec., and scored a couple of great goals that we saw, as well as a few more
that we heard about. It just wasn't possible to watch all the games being played
at or about the same time.
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Finally, Nick played for a comp. team too, but in addition was
Assistant Coach of the Happy Valley School
Mustangs, an under 12 rec. team. Here he is with his Co-Coach and young charges
on the day that each received his or her reward for playing.
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