At the beginning of this season I had set a goal in my head of finishing the season at or around the .500 level. Last year we ended the season 3-6, so I figured a 5-4 season would be a good improvement and would have our program heading the right direction. I have not really been surprised by the drama and difficulties that this season's team has brought, but I have been surprised by our success. Part of that success has come from playing small schools that have small players and this weekend had a lot of these.
This is our second year attending this tournament in Neenah. Last year we won our first game, played great for the first half of the second game (before folding in the second half) and laid the proverbial egg in our third game when the kids were absolutely gassed from playing three games in one day. This year we almost did not get to the tournament as our invitation was lost in the mail due to our school moving, but we got in this past week. The tournament director had to do a little division realignment to fit us in and we ended up in Division 5 (out of 5). Our division (of four teams) included two schools B teams (made up of 5/6th graders).
Our one day tournament, of course, got started off with some more drama. Our roster officially stood at 12 players on Friday. BUT, one was suspended from school Friday and another had Saturday morning detention- leaving us with 10. I attempted to recruit a player's cousin Friday night but he had a football game Saturday morning. Oh well- such has been our season. I arrived at our school at 6:30am to find two 6th graders already waiting for me. One was a defender, the other was a student I realized I had told could come to the tournament as a 'student manager' if he met me at the school at 6:30am. I open the door and he asks what he is going to be doing as a manager. I toss him a jersey and tell him he will be wearing this jersey with my shin guards playing fullback. That makes 11 strong.
Upon arriving at the tournament site, two of my players decided that they did not want to follow my directions earning one a 10 minute game suspension and the other a full game suspension. Our first game was against the first of the two 5/6th grade teams, so putting 9 on the field to start did not really hurt us as much as it limited what we could do- for a few minutes. We scored our first goal before I put one of the two guys with me into the game. Before halftime we would add another goal to take a 2-0 lead into halftime. The second half went just like the first, two goals for us and our keeper only touching the ball once. First game, 4-0 victory.
Our second game, two hours later, was against the other 5/6th grade team in our division. Right before the start of the game I had to bench another player for play fighting. She sat out most of the first half (even took off her cleats and put them away in her bag) before she changed her mind and attitude and got into the game. This team was physically even smaller than the first and it was clear right away that this was going to be a problem. Our players, without playing dirty, were knocking their players to the ground in almost every confrontation involving the ball and two or more players. Their coach was not happy about this and let the referee know it, a lot. But, there was not much the ref could do when most of the time the other players were knocked down because they were smaller.
The game played out eerily similar to our first. We scored two goals in the first half and our keeper touched the ball once. In the second half we scored two more, our keeper never touched the ball and our opponents' coach pulled his team off the field with 3 or so minutes left after another player went down. A very odd ending to say the least. The "good-game" line was easily the oddest I have ever been through as not one kid nor their coach offered a "good game" to anyone of us. Second game, 4-0 victory.
One more victory and we would be the Division 5 champions of the tournament. Our last opponent was not a 5/6th grade team but was a team having a 'rebuilding' year after a successful season last year with numerous 8th graders. Our kids' attitudes had not been helped greatly by all the winning and looking at our last opponents' stature (only 2 'big' kids), they were sure we would roll to a victory. The first half was the first time I thought maybe my kids were getting tired as we played our least inspiring soccer of the season. Yet, our goalie touched the ball only once and the score was 0-0 at half time.
The second half was an entirely different story all together. We scored 2 goals in the first four minutes of the half. Then we scored another 2 goals in the next 10 minutes. Once we get up four goals I change out my forwards and fullbacks. This time I also let my goalie come out and play in the field (He had done a LOT of standing around for the day and I felt he deserved the shot). The first time the ball came to him he dribbled it from our goalie box in and out of defenders up the entire length of the field and scored his first goal of the year! Clearly he had a lot of pent up energy that needed to be let out! Even moving our fullbacks up, pulling one player off the field and pulling other players over to the sideline to talk during the game could not slow us down as we scored 2 more goals to bring the total for the HALF to seven, final score 7-0.
We had scored 15 goals in three game and our goalie only touched the ball half a dozen times. It was probably the most anti-climactic championship I have ever been a part of. We were totally dominating but it was against competition that we should have dominated. To top it off the tournament had no trophy, plaque or medals for its champions- just a congratulatory hand shake from the tournament director. (The players did douse me with their water bottles, though.)
The kids were happy, I was happy for them. In a week our season will end with a rematch of our only loss- which came when we played down 1-3 players against them. Crazy to think that this discombobulated team could finish with two championships to show for our season of success and silliness!
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