![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Having a ball
Lest anyone think that this spring has been all about our older daughter, my younger daughter has had an outstanding spring as well.
The year began with her joining her soccer coaches and teammates for some winter league indoor soccer. The dynamics of the game are different, with boards to bounce the ball from and no out-of-bounds. Unfortunately, there was significant shortage of teams their age, so most of their games were against older teams made up of players from travel teams. It was a disappointing season as they were defeated regularly (and by wide margins).
However, with the arrival of spring, her team returned to outdoor play. After a couple weeks of practice, the season began, and our daughter found herself playing sparingly and mostly on defense. While she can play well in the backfield, this position doesn't really utilize all of her speed and skill. The team struggled in those first couple of games, and we tried to encourage the coach to shift our daughter to mid-field or forward.
Things began to change at the third week of the season. The coaches for our older daughter's team faced a problem. A number of the girls had to leave at halftime for other activities, leaving him with only 10 players (they play 11-on-11). Our younger daughter often practices and scrimmages with this team, so the coaches were familiar with her, and asked her to step in and play. She didn't even hesitate.
This was a big change for her in many ways. Her own team plays 8-on-8 on a half-size field in a game divided into four 15 minute quarters. Now she was playing with girls 2-3 years older than she was, on a full-size field, in a game divided into two 30 minute halves. What happened was impressive. She outplayed almost everyone on the field, forcing her sister's teammates to step up and improve their play. Our younger daughter showed incredible determination as she stripped the ball from bigger players and ran through the defenders that tried to stop her.
The next week, her older sister and a number of other players were attending the All-County Chorus performances, again leaving their coach with only 10 players. Our younger daughter borrowed her sisters uniform and played the entire game for her sister's team, helping them in a 3-0 victory.
We started talking to her coaches about her performance with her older sister's team, and the coaches started to take note of her skills as they took a sudden leap to the next level. By week five of the season, she'd been moved to a forward position on her own team and had scored her first goal of the season. That same week, her sister's coach again only had 11 players, so he used our younger daughter as a substitute, giving some of the older girls breaks.
In the second to last week of the season, she again played a significant portion (nearly 2/3) of her sister's team's game, before rushing off to her own game, where she scored two of the three goals in a 3-0 victory. When the season ended, she had scored four goals, played in all 8 of her own games and 4 of the 8 games for her older sister's team.
Her own team improved along with our daughter, so that by their final games, they were playing strong positionally and making beautiful passes. Their final game was against another strong team, and they put in a solid defensive performance to backstop our daughter's goal to earn a 1-0 victory. The coaches were thrilled with the way the team had improved and in particular singled out our daughter as one of the best players on the team.
At the last game she played for her sister's team, there was a coach from a U13 travel team scouting for potential players. While our younger daughter was clearly too young for his team, he was quite impressed with her performance against the older player, and strongly encouraged us to have her try out for the U10 travel team. She has been to three try-out sessions in the last two weeks, working to prove her skills. If she makes the team, it is likely to radically change our weekends for next fall, but it appears to be the best way for our daughter to continue to improve her skills.
The year began with her joining her soccer coaches and teammates for some winter league indoor soccer. The dynamics of the game are different, with boards to bounce the ball from and no out-of-bounds. Unfortunately, there was significant shortage of teams their age, so most of their games were against older teams made up of players from travel teams. It was a disappointing season as they were defeated regularly (and by wide margins).
However, with the arrival of spring, her team returned to outdoor play. After a couple weeks of practice, the season began, and our daughter found herself playing sparingly and mostly on defense. While she can play well in the backfield, this position doesn't really utilize all of her speed and skill. The team struggled in those first couple of games, and we tried to encourage the coach to shift our daughter to mid-field or forward.
Things began to change at the third week of the season. The coaches for our older daughter's team faced a problem. A number of the girls had to leave at halftime for other activities, leaving him with only 10 players (they play 11-on-11). Our younger daughter often practices and scrimmages with this team, so the coaches were familiar with her, and asked her to step in and play. She didn't even hesitate.
This was a big change for her in many ways. Her own team plays 8-on-8 on a half-size field in a game divided into four 15 minute quarters. Now she was playing with girls 2-3 years older than she was, on a full-size field, in a game divided into two 30 minute halves. What happened was impressive. She outplayed almost everyone on the field, forcing her sister's teammates to step up and improve their play. Our younger daughter showed incredible determination as she stripped the ball from bigger players and ran through the defenders that tried to stop her.
The next week, her older sister and a number of other players were attending the All-County Chorus performances, again leaving their coach with only 10 players. Our younger daughter borrowed her sisters uniform and played the entire game for her sister's team, helping them in a 3-0 victory.
We started talking to her coaches about her performance with her older sister's team, and the coaches started to take note of her skills as they took a sudden leap to the next level. By week five of the season, she'd been moved to a forward position on her own team and had scored her first goal of the season. That same week, her sister's coach again only had 11 players, so he used our younger daughter as a substitute, giving some of the older girls breaks.
In the second to last week of the season, she again played a significant portion (nearly 2/3) of her sister's team's game, before rushing off to her own game, where she scored two of the three goals in a 3-0 victory. When the season ended, she had scored four goals, played in all 8 of her own games and 4 of the 8 games for her older sister's team.
Her own team improved along with our daughter, so that by their final games, they were playing strong positionally and making beautiful passes. Their final game was against another strong team, and they put in a solid defensive performance to backstop our daughter's goal to earn a 1-0 victory. The coaches were thrilled with the way the team had improved and in particular singled out our daughter as one of the best players on the team.
At the last game she played for her sister's team, there was a coach from a U13 travel team scouting for potential players. While our younger daughter was clearly too young for his team, he was quite impressed with her performance against the older player, and strongly encouraged us to have her try out for the U10 travel team. She has been to three try-out sessions in the last two weeks, working to prove her skills. If she makes the team, it is likely to radically change our weekends for next fall, but it appears to be the best way for our daughter to continue to improve her skills.
Wow!