Happy Turkey Day

Hello all!!! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours went fairly well considering I had to spend it with my family. LOL See you have to understand, my brother, more like my sister in law and I are having an ongoing feud.

That is a long story and I think I covered it ions ago in one of my blogs. So, for the update you may or may not have been waiting for. We had a district game on Tuesday night which means it counts more since they are in our division. We took on the North Port Bobcats at our field.

Besides facing another dirty team, my boys came in with their heads held high thanks to some confidence building in the Keys. The first half we were a bit shaky because it was very cold out. Okay, cold for these kids, it was in the 50’s which these kids think is freezing. There was a wind chill so it felt like 48, but anyway, they were not quite themselves.

North Port scored the first and only goal of the evening at around the 10 minute mark. We held them even though they were taking shots at the boys, “boys” if you will. They had some obsession with nailing our guys where it counts, but again, my boys did not faultier. They kept their cool and played on.

Well, to make a long story short, we started looking like ourselves the second half of the game. We must have taken close to 30 shots on goal. Sadly, none of them went in. My boys were heart broken and several of them cried. I felt really bad for them because they did give all of their blood, sweat and tears that day. Hopefully we can fix our bumps and bruises over this holiday and be ready for the next several games. We have three in a row when we get back next week, so…

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I will keep you posted as to our continued voyage. Since, mainly, my life is soccer right now that is all I can talk about for now. We will get back to our series once the season has ended.

Split

Well Gang, we split this weekend although I am going to contest our game today against Coral Shores. If you haven’t guessed, I am back from our tournament down in the Keys. Wow, it was fun and it was so nice to see a community that supported its team so much.

The first game we played was against Key West. The boys looked awesome and I could not have been prouder. We came out with a 2 – 0 victory and the boys were floating on air. To see them with so much confidence and to come into the home town and over come the drums, screams, and fans that were routing against them, they did it.

Our second game was today and I am contesting it as I stated above. The dirty playing team did not have enough JV kids to play so they brought down 13 of the Varsity players who just got done losing to our Varsity. What is worse is they changed right in front of the refs and when I confronted the refs about this, they turned away and played dumb. So, I have 17 and 18 year old kids playing my 14-16 year olds. You may not think much of this but at this age, there is a huge difference in abilities. Besides, it is against the FHSAA rules to have a Varsity player drop to JV especially after just playing a game.

So, anyway, the guys are a bit bummed today and feeling down on themselves. Well, I repeated my speech from a few weeks ago to let them know that hey, you did an awesome job considering you were playing Varsity players. My guys held them until the last 20 minutes when they just scored 4 goals on us. The final was 0-6 and we just did not fair well.

Well, we have North Port on Tuesday and then my guys can rest their bumps and bruises for 5 days. Hopefully we can regain the momentum we once had. Keep us in your prayers.

Hopefully Back On Track

Sadly, we were on a four game losing streak, but we ended up beating a team last night that our school has not beaten in 7 years. They have a fantastic program and when we held them off and won 2 – 1, boy, I will tell you, what a moral booster.

My kids were in the dumps, beat up, injured and on the point of giving up for the rest of the season. I don’t know if it was my half hour pep talk or if they finally just had it with losing that they stepped up and played their hearts out.

You would have thought I just won the Superbowl or something the way I ran up and down that sideline jumping for joy for those kids. Just to see the smiles on their faces and their parents hug them after the game made it so sweet. You have no idea what it feels like to be a part of all that.

Anyway, I will keep you up to date on our saga. We head to the Keys for a tournament this weekend. Here is hoping we will sweep. I am hoping they will keep the intensity that they had last night and roll with it. If not, then we will cross that bridge when we get there. These boys are a real joy to coach, so… Besides, it is nice to get away from a household of women every now and again. ;-) LOL Just kidding.

Frustrated

Hey there!!!! Well, I am beyond frustrated now. We have lost the last three games. You have already read the one entry, but we played three games back to back this week. My poor guys are beat up and exhausted. I feel so bad for them and am totally frustrated as to how to get us back on track.


The other night we played a city school and their boys were wicked fast. They ran our kids into the ground and exhausted them more then they were. What was worse, I lost three of my starters and one of my best kids. He is a great ball handler, leader, and just an all around good kid, but boom, he is out.

Tonight, we played as I said our third game in a row and at least we scored. The final was 5-1 and even though it is a high score for the other team, we played real hard. We took offensive players and put them in defense because we lost three of those guys right off the bat. I think we have more injured kids then we do healthy. :-(

The reason I am frustrated is that it seems as if we are working hard, but like an out of tune engine, we just can’t get things going. I have tried several offenses, different players and different formations, but no luck. The kids are getting frustrated as well and I feel bad for them since I have never coached at this level. 3 – 4 year olds are one thing, but these kids deserve more then I am doing. Sadly, these kids follow my lead without question and play with blood, sweat and tears.

Anyway, our next game is Tuesday and we are playing the team mentioned in my last entry at their school. I hope my kids get healed up this weekend. Anyway, I am sorry to gripe to you about my errors. It is just that I feel so bad because I love these kids and wish we were doing better. Yes, it is a growing experience, but man, they deserve better.

It Happened!!!

Sadly, the unbeaten streak has ended. We went up against what they called their Junior Varsity team, with 13 seniors, whatever!!!! Our guys played a hard, clean, game and I am very proud of each and every one of my guys.

The score was 2 – 0 and this is one reason why I am so proud!!!!! We held a Varsity team to only two points!!!! But the major reason I am proud of my guys was the fact that they played a clean game because their team played as dirty as they get. They elbowed, they kicked our keeper when he had the ball, they kneed, grouped, and practically had my one guy’s private parts for dinner. They had to play dirty just to win against my guys.

Tomorrow, we have another rough game so I am worried. I know that they aren’t as dirty of a team, but they are very fast. I mainly have sophomores and freshman, so, they are still young and not quite as experienced as most of the teams we will be facing. So, wish us luck for tomorrow’s game. I think Friday, though; we will be back on the winning streak for sure because they are a younger team then we are.

Thank you for your support.

The Fourman's and Puerto Rico.

Dad isn't his best but he is on first day of anti-biotics for the sinusitis. :-(

Brats, the Ship and Half Moon Cay

The Brats and Half Moon Cay

This is St. Thomas

Holy Cow


Well, we won again last night which surprises the living daylights out of me. We won 3 – 1, although, this time we had a harder time of things. We almost scored against ourselves. I just about ripped our keeper a new one since he came out of the net and missed twice, this leaves our goal empty.

Anyway it is still a win, but, I had to also rip the rest of the team’s heads off because they sat there yelling at the ref from the sidelines. I reminded my guys very kindly that we will see these guys again and they will remember us if we are mouthing off. Not only that, but they work with other refs that we will probably see later on as well.

So, here is the deal, I didn’t think I was going to win one game this year and already have two under our belts, both victories, so I have already exceeded my goal for this year. LOL The boys are looking better, though. I can’t wait because we are going to the Keys for a tournament!!!! CIGARS for me and liquor for after the game which will stop the red ears and face because I can calm down, just kidding though.

Just keep us in your prayers. Our next home game is Tuesday which should be interesting because we are playing one of the powerhouses from last year. Who knows what will happen?

As for the pictures, I am hoping this weekend I will put some up. Be patient, because I didn’t get home until almost midnight last night and had to be up at 5 or school. Hang in there.

Shocked, Amazed, and a bit Bewildered

It is just that kind of entry because I am all of the above. The first soccer match was last night of all nights (Halloween). Okay, the guys did not do as bad as I thought they would do. We won 5 – 1 and truthfully, it would have been a shutout, but with seconds remaining, they slipped one in. I think there were 2 or maybe even 1 second on the clock.

Now, to the bewildered part since we covered the shocked and amazed in the first paragraph Here is the thing, in our scrimmages, these boys do not move, they pass like **** and they do not come to the passes so they are easily intercepted. I just about flipped my lid the last several practices because of the poor passes and mistakes. Granted, things seemed to go well last night, they were still a bit lacking in techniques.

We have our next game tomorrow night against the winner of the other game. Oh, by the way, this is a tournament, so we are one win away from the trophy and taking this year’s title for the Classic. These are actually like warm up games for the true season, so we have a long way to go for districts. It would be nice to take home the trophy in our first year. But, I am not getting my hopes too high because the team we play tomorrow night is a powerhouse, so I am a bit worried.

(Aside) Yes, I will try to get to those pictures this weekend. The games right now are my priority, so sorry for the delay. Wish me luck because I almost had an aneurism last night. The players laugh at me because I have a vein in my head that bulges when I am mad. Well, on top of that I turn bright red, so there is no hiding it. Wish us luck and I will hopefully update you on Friday how we did.