Spring Soccer

Soccer has taken up a LOT of our family’s time for the last 10 weeks… but it was so much fun! 

Monday – 5:00 – 6:30 Katie’s team practice – Chris coaching

5:30 – 6:30 Megan’s team practice

Tuesday – 5:30 – 6:30 Ryan’s team practice  – Chris assistant coaching

Wednesday -- 5:00 – 6:30 Katie’s team practice – Chris coaching

6:30 – 7: 30 Megan’s team game

Thursday – 5:30 – 6:30 Ryan’s team practice – Chris assistant coaching

Saturday – 9:00 or 10:30 Katie’s team game – Chris coaching

12:00 or 1:30 Ryan’s team game – Chris assistant coaching

 

Megan’s Team – THE SHARKS

This was Megan’s first season playing soccer and she was so excited.  She was eager to get dressed and ready to go really early for her practices and games.  When her practice was cancelled one day she begged Dad to let her go to Katie’s practice, which he OKed happily.  Megan did lots of running, was quite aggressive and played great for her first season.  Her coach immediately called her a go-getter.   Megan’s coach was Coach Rachel – who is Kai’s mom – one of Katie’s close friends.  So, Chris coached Kai, and Kai’s mom coached Megan.  It worked out perfectly.   She had a great season and can’t wait for the fall.

 

     

After the last game of the season Coach Rachel handed out medals.  What a fun season.

Katie’s Team: THE SPARKS

Written by Dad… “Katie had a great season.  She was on a team consisting almost entirely of kids from the ward and one of her best friends from school.  Although we lost a couple of games, I was really proud of the improvement I saw in her team over the course of the season.  Katie's individual skills really improved as well and she was a critical member of the team.  I started playing her at midfield and striker at the beginning of the season to help her develop more offense skills, but realized by the second game that we would lose a lot of games if I didn't keep her on defense.  It was so fun to watch her chase down big and talented boys who got behind our defense and take the ball away from them when they thought they had a free breakaway to the goal. Katie has a real desire to practice and get better and is asking me to take her to the park all the time to practice soccer.  I am really proud of her.”

Megan on Ali’s back, a favorite friend to all of our girls --- and Katie with Kai, one of her best friends.

 

Our team was full of friends and players we’ve had for several seasons now.   Ryan Glazier, Katie, Ian Patterson, Tate and Lindsey Gillespie.

Soccer moms… it was so much fun to go to all the games and watch and cheer together every Saturday.

This was Ryan’s first season in the 13-16 age group but as you can see he still considered himself an honorary member of this team… especially since his best friends are on the team. He practiced with them a lot this season.   Megan wishes she was playing and not watching… and Matthew is totally in the middle of that huddle helping with the team cheer. 

 

Chris has had so much fun coaching.  He had a hard time deciding between coaching Ryan’s team or Katie’s team but chose to stick with Katie’s team since there were so many ward friends requesting it.  This is his fourth season coaching here (although one season we were really gone so much that Chris just let his assistant coach take over) and it’s been really fun to be a part of the program for so long and meet so many great soccer families. 

He does such a great job with the team keeping them discipline and having fun and I think the kids really like to play for him.   It’s no surprise that Coach Johnson likes BYU.  I think he wears a BYU shirt to every practice and game.

For the team party at the end of a great season they had a parents against kids soccer party.    Chris was up front dribbling through his players and scoring goals and I was back in Defense just standing there as an easy obstacle to dribble around – I tried but that’s just what kept happening.  After the soccer game we went inside and ate cupcakes while Chris handed out medals and talked about each player. 

 

Ryan’s Team: H20

Ryan was part of a really great team this year.  He had a lot of friends from school on this team and they worked hard and had a great time playing together.  Coach Nochera agreed to coach the team without much soccer experience so he welcomed Chris’ experience and gladly made him Assistant Coach.    It worked out great… plus there was no conflicting game times or travel for both Ryan and Katie’s teams so Chris could make it to all the games.  It was nice.

Written by Dad… “Ryan had another awesome season.  I ended up coaching his team as well as Katie's and I am so glad I did.  His team was full of respectful and coachable kids and it made for a very rewarding season as a coach.  Ryan's team destroyed every team they played.  The last game of the year, they were actually losing at halftime 2-1 which was a result of not having a game for 3 weeks and some overconfidence.  But we made some adjustments at halftime and they defeated the other team 6-2.  Ryan played Striker for most of the season, although I switched him to center midfield a few times (like the second half of the last game) to control the middle of the field.  He really improved his vision of the field and his passing skills, and made some improvement with his ball control as well.  He scored a few goals and had a lot of fun.”

  

Cool to be #14 when you’re about to turn 14.

Here’s Ryan with his coaches.    Ryan’s team party was the exact same night as Katie’s team party really close to each other so Chris and I ran back and forth.  After the parent versus kid soccer game for Katie’s team Chris and I ran over to Ryan’s BBQ to watch all the kids get their awards and then back over to Katie’s to do the same thing.  Woohoo!  Soccer’s over until the fall!!