August Football

The boys are missing two football practices during our getaway to Florida.  Seems like a good time to catch up before we get back and school starts.

Cpher:  As always, a year of experience makes a big difference.  Like last year, he’s a fixture on the line.  Seems to be playing right tackle.  I’m sure he’ll end up on the defensive line as well, just by size alone. 

Doing really well; he’s definitely impressing the coaches with his running and endurance (the other big guy has no endurance…so, there is quite a difference between the two).  I watched one practice where he was just destroying the smaller kids across from him on defense; he pancake-d one kid, blew some other kids five or six yards off of the line of scrimmage. 

First game is September 10.

Matthew:  Surprisingly, also looks to be a fixture on the offensive line.  I think part of this is he’s on the bigger end of the fourth graders, and part of this is that a lot of the skill players are coaches son’s, so, well, that’s how it is going to be. Looks to be lined up at guard, sometimes right next to Christopher, sometimes on the other side.  He’s more than holding his own.  Wants to run the ball (badly!) but I’ve asked him to wait for a game or two before asking to do that, especially with missing practice time for soccer.

But, duty on the offensive line comes with one perk…..you will play more on defense (it’s the coaches way of ‘thanking’ the kids for playing the OL….which everyone considers a thankless chore).  I’ve seen him play defense a few times in practice….he’s lined up at linebacker.

Unlike Kevin, who was never really aggressive in football, and unlike Cpher, who is getting there, but wasn’t all that aggressive last year, Matthew…..he gets it.  Ball is hiked, BOOM!, he’s moving towards the ball.  I saw two plays I’ll recount here; one play he followed the running back outside and just missed getting the tackle….on the second play he shot through the middle and caught the running back 6 to 8 yards in the backfield with a shoestring tackle.  Coaches and teammates mob Matthew after that play….pretty cool!

Soccer conflicts are going to be an issue…..it’s going to be a hectic 6 weeks coming up!

Trip to Florida

The last hurrah of summer; a low-key(?….we’ll see…) week in Orlando.  I promised that I would take a few pictures on the trip down to do a blog post, and in that regard, had something happen that I can’t recall ever happening on a flight I’ve been on before. 

 

At Flint’s airport; approximately 6:30 am.  Love that Flint is a convenient option and has cheap flights; do not love that sometimes those cheap flights mean 5 am wake up calls….

As you can see, Cpher’s not a big fan of them either.  Matthew and his best friend; the Itouch.  Battery was gone by the time we hit Atlanta….

 

Left Flint on time, arrived at Atlanta early and the Captain gets on the intercom, says, well, because we’re early and he knows there are a lot of kids on board, he would like to offer the opportunity for the kids to get a cockpit tour.  A) it’s damned rare to be early now-a-days, and B) I’ve never had this happen on a flight I’ve been on.

Christopher is interested, but, kind of have to talk Matthew into it…..I just don’t think they understand how unique this kind of opportunity is….

 

And I give full points to the Captain here….he had them both sit down, he had them hit a button that sounded a ‘stall’ alarm, he had Matthew advance the throttle to give the plane more power to get out of the stall….

 

I forget what he had Christopher do; I know the lights were flashing…I think Cpher is using the throttle here as well…..

For the record, they are in a MD-88 cockpit.

 

Fric and Frac getting ready to head to Orlando.  I ended up moving over and sitting in the aisle when the woman who was scheduled to sit in the window next to the boys.  Have to figure she liked that upgrade; on an aisle with a middle open next to her while I was dealing with Fric and Frac.

Mom?  Took my 1st class upgrade and was sipping vodka cranberries in seat 5D!

I’ve said it before, and will say it again; this timeshare is worth it for the moments when the kids walk into the room and go “Wow, this is awesome!”……this resort (Cypress Harbor) we hadn’t been to before, and had this big jacuzzi tub. 

After swimming yesterday afternoon the boys filled up the tub and went for it….there was water everywhere!

Iphone Photo Dump

Another edition of the old favorite….

Way back when, I used to take pictures of cats.  Lots of pictures of Ernie floating around.  I’d bet this is the first blog appearance of Madison (near the box) and Marino (under the chair).

  

Cpher in the early morning….Marino under one arm, Wiley soaking up the attention by his side….

 

Spent a long day out at Selfridge a few weeks back….didn’t get home ‘til almost 8 after leaving pre-dawn.  The lone highlight was at the end of the day, when all of the A-10’s came back to the base…..you can see one just about to land.  We were about 1,000 feet from the runway….

Iphone pictures suck when zoomed in…..there’s two of them landing side by side here….

 

Matthew rocking his new TNT gear during the rain delay at the Challenge Cup; we’re at Dick’s buying cleats….

 

Mmmmm….BBQ Fritos….I forget what store Suzanne was in but she happened to look down and magically, she found the mystical, wonderful, totally awesome BBQ Fritos stocked!  Boys (and Dad) very happy with this development

 

This is Henry….you may have seen him in countless soccer pictures and video from last year.  Matthew and Henry are thick as thieves.  Henry has an older brother, Sam, who is year older than Christopher.  If you put the four of them together, the thick as thieves motif is overpowering.  Very scary……

Anyway, Henry and his mom joined us for our yearly pilgrimage to the county fair

 

 

 

Up they go, down they come….

 

Boys begged to do the bungee-trampoline thing…..that’s Kevin in the foreground and the kid attempting (but I don’t think pulling off the flip on this attempt) in the background is Matthew.  He did pull it off later…..

 

Christopher just went up and down a lot….

 

More Kevin and Matthew….

 

We’ve never stopped to watch the demo derby or off-road race before….we did this time.  A lot of mud, broken down cars, and bugs…..and Matthew and Christopher loved it…

Lights on at the fair.

Of course, not trip to the fair is complete without bringing home fish; we know better now and have the water sitting out to remove the chlorine even before we go (read on a Garrett-Fincke blog that they didn’t do this and had dead fish the next morning….we’re old hands and learned that lesson years ago).

Anyway, none of this group made it past day 5…..and nowhere near our record for a fair fish, three years for Mary.

 

Went to Lake Lansing a few weeks back to picnic for dinner and swim……took this photo of the family as I walked up.

Dewitt Ox Roast 4v4 – Day Two

Arrive back on-site at 9:30 am for the first game of the elimination round.  There are seven teams; we are the #3 seed and face the #6 seed to start off.  There’s a sense of fatalism hanging around this morning; the team we lost to yesterday is not the #1 seed (in the other side of the bracket) but the #2 seed, so, we play them in the semi-final game and will most likely be going home after that.

Game Four:  Playing Firepower; the tallest team we’ve played yet.   It’s 1-0 at halftime. 

This highlight, featured before, was the first goal of the game.  Just a magical play by Matthew, from the move that he made to get the ball away from the kid who was driving in towards our end (his move was so good that you can hear the other parents, who are cheering, just stop when he makes it and the kid on the other team trips over himself trying to recover) towards his dance up the sideline before he centers the ball for the tap-in.

I missed it, and I guess I should go back to the tape to hear it, but afterwards Cpher was adamant that they should have ruled Matthew out of bounds and it shouldn’t be a goal.  Not very supportive there, but, I think it more centered from his understanding of the rule (ball on the line is in, even if your body is not).

For a game that Matthew absolutely dominated, this is the one photo we have of him in that game. 

But, there is some video…

Here’s another goal.  I’ve asked Matthew to take the majority of the free kicks so that a) we could get more people up front and b) he could do his thing.  Here’s another example of Matthew doing his thing.

Another perfect pass leads to a goal.  Just holds the ball long enough to draw the guy forward

Game Five:  Back at it against the boys and the girls…..told the boys the same message I’ve hammered home for months…..you play your hardest, you hustle, win or lose, you’ll still be THINGS!

Guess I should have borrowed some of these lines…..

Get off to a great start; we score the first goal and go up 1-0.  They come back and score the next three (one of them a goal that we never should have given up, just centered the ball on defense for them AGAIN, and they did what must happen to Things when Things do that), and then we score again (on a sweet pass by Matthew) and it’s 3-2 at the half.

 

This was an ugly moment, but we got the ball out of there…….

 

 

This encounter with a girl in the middle of the field didn’t end so well….not sure where he started from, whether he was rushing in to stop here or to try and go by her.  But, the deflection here goes out of bounds….

 

Switched ends for the second half…..told them to keep playing like Things should play and Things won’t be upset with their effort at the end of the game.  Matthew again does booting the ball out of our end on a goal kick.

 

 

 

Told Matthew, after about five minutes gone (in a 10-minute half) that I needed him to try and push forward more because we needed a goal.  These three photos are one of these efforts, he wins the ball and gets off a long-distance shot, that I recall just trickled wide…..

 

 

 

Another rush forward…..I recall this being a shot when I thought it should have been a pass….you can’t score from the other side of midfield by the rules.  I didn’t ask him, maybe he was intending a pass with it.

They scored as we were pressing to tie and made it 4-2 and that was the final.  Things were sweaty, mad, sad, but proud of their efforts.  This team went on to win the final 3-0 (I’m pretty sure we could have taken the other team to….).

Varsity Blues

As predicted, Kevin was cut to the JV squad after the first few days.  Last year, he challenged his way up to #3 singles (and the #1 and #2 singles are now on Varsity) but it seems like this has all been forgotten and he ended up parked on #2 doubles as they began the JV season. 

He’s had more games/quads then practices (and at practice, you can challenge, and move up).  So, he’s played #2 doubles with his best friend Henry and they’ve been running rough-shod over the other teams, scores like 8-2, 8-3 in 8-game sets.

On Monday he was at another JV meet, received some texts that he was doing well, and then received this text.

“I’m playing with Varsity tomorrow.  I’m going to get a letter.”

Quad meets have four teams; one team bailed out of Tuesday’s meet and they were going to form another team from the best varsity-bench and JV players.  The line-up is really messed up now (according to Kevin) and he is paired with someone that’s not very good at all, and, against some of the best teams in the State, they get hammered in the six sets they played.  Kevin said he could return the serves from the other team, but, his partner couldn’t, and vice-versa in serving to them.  So, of course, the other teams hit the ball to his partner more often than not.

Finally had a practice today, and he did begin his series of challenges.  Beat the #4 guy, so, we’ll see what happens in the JV quad tomorrow……

Dewitt Ox Roast 4v4 – Day One

Last year I coached two teams in this 4v4 tournament; Christopher’s team made the semi finals in the U10 group and Matthew’s team lost in the finals.

3/5 of Matthew’s team from last year wasn’t available to try and get the title that eluded us….so, I figured we weren’t doing it.  But, Matthew’s best buddy was interested, their family found two more players, and we were in,and I was dragooned to coach.   And I had a really good idea for shirts

"Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical THINGS you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all."

Had a blast with the Things concept all weekend long….made them line up in order; yelled out “What are you Things doing???”, and other thing-a-ma-jig related phrases during games.  Wish I had found that quote earlier, I would have had it printed on the backs of the shirts.

Game 1:  Playing the Green Pickles:  They were a dill of a team, only had four players and one of them had a broken toe.  We won, 8-0. 

 

 

 

Things do what things do….Thing #3 is an expert at collecting the ball on defense and dribbling up-field.  This sequence of four pictures shows him doing exactly that.  The Pickle didn’t have a chance…..

 

Talking with my Things.  I had never coached or seen two of my Things before today so Game 1 was trying to figure out what they did well and what they didn’t do well.  Like 90% of kids, no interest or skill at defense…They had played with the other travel team in town last year; good players, but, I was (and am still surprised) that the big message I had to pound home was to go hard all the time….

Of course, no defense means .Matthew buried in the back again holding down the fort for most of the game….

 

Nice pictures….realized that with the other ball on the field that all they were doing was warming up……

 

Game 2:  Playing Hat Trick Plus Two….this is the group of two male TNT teammates and three TNT girls that beat us last year for first place.  So, I’m not expecting good things here……I think my three TNT kids will hold their own but have some concerns about my two new Things.

Turns out one of my TNT Things went south on me and we lost 5-1.  Kicking balls back to the middle of the field; letting the guy with the ball just dribble in on Matthew and our goal instead of making him pass…..ugly.  I  basically threw in the towel with five minutes left and yanked Matthew out of defense when it was 3-1  to try and score goals, and that meant we were going to give up more goals as well.

  

playing your TNT teammate makes it a little more fun…..either Zane (here in the headband) or Matthew was going to walk away 3 for 3 in the summer 4v4 tournaments (they had played together at Holt and Mason)

 

 

These four photos show Matthew doing what he needs to be doing…..playing sweeper-goalie and getting any threatening balls out of there.  This 4v4 has a different rule; no high balls.  Any balls that go over the shoulders are blown dead and the other team gets a free kick.  Matthew adopted to this better than most Things…he knew what he had to do to keep the ball down all the time.

 

This, and the next three photos, are a goal against us.  They, and another play later, convinced me that we didn’t have much hope in the rest of the tournament if I didn’t keep Matthew and Henry back on defense (with instructions to move and dribble forward and shoot when they could) and have the other three rotate through the forward and midfield positions.

I implemented that strategy in our very next game. 

You can’t see it here, but one of my Things was running towards Nick, who has the ball BUT at the last second, peeled away to cover the girl that is out of the picture to the right. 

I much rather would have had him challenge Nick; because Nick has a full head of steam coming towards Matthew, and my Thing has just basically opened the door for him to take a shot.

Because we didn’t challenge the ball, Matthew’s facing a two-on-one.  You can see between picture 1 and 2 that he opened up his stance a little bit to try and be ready to react.  And I’m sure he’s cheating a little towards Zane

Because he’s cheating right, it’s hard to move back left…and Nick slides it by him for the goal.

I think Matthew just took quite a shot in this photo after the girl kicked the ball…..

He is very good at collecting the ball off of his various parts of his body and dribbling to a good position and making a pass….and that’s that the last four pictures show.

Not so successful at beating Nick here though…..

These last six photos are picture-pages of how Matthew likes to beat people; I’m really happy that Suzanne captured them. I love this new camera (sports mode generates a lot of pictures quickly….it stinks to process but does look really cool when you string them together).

Act 1: Matthew heading left.  Girl heading left in hot pursuit.  If the goal Matthew is heading for is at 12 o’clock, the girl is heading towards 10….

Act 2:  Matthew, having gotten the girl to follow him left and in front to try and catch up, now begins the patented-cut-back-to-the-right-move we know so well….

Girl heading almost at 11 now…

Act 3:  Matthew cuts and gets ready to accelerate.  Girl facing 9 o’clock

Act 4:  Accelerating.  He’s pushed the ball further away from him than in any other picture in this sequence because he has stopped her and knows he can accelerate into this ball and past her.  Girl facing 6 o’clock now.

Act 5:  Still accelerating, girl facing almost 4 o’clock now and stretching out to try and get the ball, off-balance.  I think this photo makes her look closer than she really is….because….

Act 6:  Matthew did get the next touch and is pushing by…..girl facing 3 o’clock….Matthew got her to rotate more than 180 degrees……

Go back and look at her ponytail in these photos….another indication of how much he made her rotate during this sequence…..

Game 3:  After a long rain delay we play our final game, against Five Boys and a Ball.  No pictures here; threat of rain has the electronics stashed away.

We win, 3 or 4 to 1.  I don’t really remember.  My Thing plan works in that we don’t give up many goals (the one they scored was a mistake on our part) but we’re going to be challenged to score goals unless Matthew and Henry come forward.  Spend most of this game explaining to the Things what I want for our single-elimination games tomorrow.

One tired Thing….fell asleep on the way back to the tournament after the rain delay.