Week One

We started our 2010 season off with two practices before school started and had seven kids at each practice. These were the players who either responded to the postcards I sent out or picked up the soccer info when they registered for the new school year. Of those seven, we lost two who were not actually registered students at our school- but picked up a couple returning 8th graders and by Thursday (our last practice day this week) we had nine players who look to stick it out. We should pick up another six or so players on Monday after I went to all of our middle school classes the last two days of the week to recruit.

A few things I know so far...
1. We have got to get to another park to practice. Our school built our present building just last year with a fairly large, fenced in "field" next to it to be used for future expansion. We planted grass in early August last year, but recess and our practices pretty much gave the grass no shot at growing strong.

This year we are adding on an addition that will not be done until the first week of October and the building crew and their gear has taken up nearly 85% of our "field". That leaves us with about a 20 yd x 80 yd portion of mostly dirt terrian on which to practice. Plenty of bumps and mini-holes that make dribbling difficult. Hopefully, between my new assistant coach and I we can transport our kids a couple times a week to a nearby park to get some real practice in.

2. We are going to be solid on offense. This year's squad has last year's two best goal scorers (who are now 7th and 8th graders) and we have picked up a 6th grader who appears to have played a little before this year. Both returning goal scorers appear to have played since last year and look to be better- so we should be able to score some goals this year.

3. We may have our goalie figured out. At the end of Thursday's practice I decided to make a goal using our flag poles and the fence around our land that has trees and bushes hanging over the top making it nearly impossible to kick the ball over the fence (I say nearly because one player managed to get a ball over). After starting the drill in goal I turned the gloves over to an 8th grader who really wanted to try out goalie. Once I explained to him the basic idea and that he cannot be afraid of the ball or getting hurt, I sent him in. He immediately came out aggressive- diving for balls and charging offensive players causing several shots to be hurried and off-target. I am eager to get him in a real goal this week and see if he keeps it up. If we learned anything last year, it was that a great goalie can take a team a long way.

Our first game is over a week away, so at this point I am pleased with where we are. Hopefully in the next week we pick up some players, get to a park and start to build some momentum for the start of our game schedule.

FC Fortis 2010

We begin our title defense of our 2009 LAA Lower Division Championship this Monday. We will return about 6 or so players off of last year's squad but only a couple played significant minutes or made significant contributions on last year's squad. Our biggest strength this year will be that we bring back over 2/3 of our goals scored last season in our two forwards (now a 7th and an 8th grader). The core of our dominating defense from last yeaer all graduated so we'll have to raise up a new goalie and strong fullbacks.

Our schedule this year is bigger as we picked up three non-conference games in addition to our six conference games and one out-of-town tournament. Our practice field at our school has been reduced by almost 80% due to a small addition to our building. There is still enough room to work out, but no much. There are numerous soccer fields within a 3 mile radius of our school (all with goals and nets) if we had the means of getting our kids to them (ie. a 15-passenger van)- but until we see that happen we will more than gladly make due with the luxury and convenience of walking out our school's back door right onto our fenced in field.

Hopefully, our school's running tradition of a stud 8th grade athlete transferring in continues, but if not I am sure that this year's Tigers will make the season a memorable one.