Detroit FC

 

One of the reasons Matthew and I didn’t join in the impromptu visit to Chicago was that we had planned on heading down to Detroit to see the new minor-league soccer team, Detroit FC.  An added bonus is that one of Matthew’s coaches plays on this team; he was the goalie for State this fall and is now the goalie here.

We got there plenty early; note the gray clouds behind Matthew; that’s west…

The rain really came down right before introductions….we (and many others) found some good spots under the stands to watch and stay dry.  It probably rained for the first ten minutes of the game, we eventually stood up right next to the fence and watched the game.

The games area at Cass Tech High School; concessions are the food truck parked out back.  The pulled pork sandwich was pretty good!

Matthew and Coach Jeremy after Detroit FC’s first win (ever!), a 3-0 shutout.  We had a really good time and would go again, but, the schedule isn’t going to work out for us to attend another game this year.  It was pretty cool as we walked on to the field, two other players, aside from Jeremy, stopped Matthew and said “Thanks for coming out today.”

Matthew and I finished our soccer Saturday by stopping at the Canton Cup and watching the U10B from the other travel team in town play (Matthew has two friends on that team).  They lost, 3-1, to the team in yellow from the last Sports Desk post; one of the only times this year that we, and they, have played the same team.  Sadly, I didn’t walk away too impressed with the other travel team.  In fairness, if they watched us after the horrible games from this spring, I would be they wouldn’t walk away too impressed either. 

From the Sports Desk

 

Cpher:  A whole lot of lacrosse to talk about here.

We played a home and home (they came here for both games) with Caledonia…..they went up 6-0 in the first quarter of the first game but we rallied to close it to 8-4; Mom and Dad missed the first quarter of this game but we have been told that Cpher picked up a penalty for slashing in that ugly first quarter.

The rematch, a week later, went better, a 4-1 win.  We skipped a game in there (a 9-1 win against East Lansing) so that Cpher could get in a visit to the tutor (yes, we are still going, we are fitting it in when we can in amongst all of the sports).

The weekend before Memorial Day was taken up with the Waverly Lacrosse Festival; four games over Saturday and Sunday.  We lost, 6-0, to Canton in Game 1 and won, 5-1 against Huron Valley on Saturday.

Game 3 is where the pictures are from, an 8-4 loss to Hartland.  They were much better than us, and I think, like the Canton team, made up primarily of 6th graders.  That will do it most times…..

Cpher played well, when he had the chance to mix it up and stop the other team he certainly did so….there was a defensive breakdown in the midfield more than once and there would be kids just running in untouched towards our defense…and they’d typically slow up and shoot before they got to Cpher and the other defenseman OR keep running in full speed; in either case, that’s almost impossible for Cpher or any kid on defense to do anything about….

But, if we do slow them down enough, the big guys in back can engage them.  And knock the ball away and pick it up…..like Cpher had done here….

Of course, the other team can take the ball back, you can see that Cpher has lost it and it’s falling to the ground…

In the end he regained possession, took a few steps, and then launched the ball out of our end….

Matthew: All this time between posts and we only have two games to report on…and they took place back-to-back the Sunday before Memorial Day.

Sometimes you go for the ball…

and miss it completely!  (you can see the ball near the yellow kids)

The first game we were winning 6-1 after about 20 minutes….they came back to make it 6-3 at the half on two goals that should never have been allowed; they were clearly offsides but one of the AR’s didn’t show up and the Canton parent who volunteered to be the AR on that half didn’t make the call and the head ref (who never moved from the midfield with the flow of play, both coaches were really pissed off about that!) was certainly in no position to overrule.  And of course, if you’re winning 6-1, you’re not really supposed to bitch too much when that kind of thing happens.  We ended up winning 7-5.

There is not much to say about the second game; The game was supposed to start at 1 pm, ref had 12:30 in his schedule, he started it at 12:35 and didn’t care what or how the kids might feel about that….Of course this is the hottest day of the year…..We were up 3-1 and they came back to tie it late to end in a 3-3 tie.  They were happier about the outcome than we were.

A recent development in games is Matthew contorting out of position to head the ball (or attempt to head the ball).  Some very strange turns and moves….

Matthew wasn’t happy with this guy, who planted his cleat on top of Matthew’s foot instead of the ball.

You can click on this last photo (it comes from the video); Matthew is about to take this shot and his teammate, Seth, on the far post, will punch it in after the goalie deflects it.

BUT, these refs, for both games, stink, and they rule that Seth was offsides and disallow the goal.  I’ve seen the video a bunch; you couldn’t convince me that he was off, in fact, the AR (who is on the sideline and is supposed to make the call), doesn’t make the call, but the head ref, who is at midfield (you can see the midfield line in this photo) did.  Not sure how, but he did.

Keep your pants on…

 

Yeah, it’s been crickets around here again.  Coming attractions include:

From the Sports Desk – nothing last weekend so just some catch up from the prior weekend.

Detroit FC – Matthew and my adventure to downtown Detroit for minor-league soccer

Chi-town Haley – Suzanne, Kevin, and Cpher’s trip to Chicago this weekend

Pre-trip Blues – An update as the stress level……

Hungry Dogs – what one year of short rations meant for Wiley and Holly at the annual checkup

They do what they want to do…

 

Cpher directed us to the youtube video of his (and this classmates).  You can click on any of the pictures below to watch the 2 minute video…Cpher is surprisingly prominent in it (I think you see maybe four pictures of kids, Cpher might be three of them?)

I think this project might be Cpher’s top highlight from fifth grade….really glad he got so into it. 

Iphone Photo Dump

 

Hit the magic threshold number of Iphone photos that I haven’t used for any other purpose…so here they are

What’s this you ask?  if you look out in that field of green across the road, that’s a skunk sitting there in the field.  This picture is down in Ann Arbor for last Saturday’s game….Christopher wanted to run over and take a better picture; he was told ‘no’.

Happily, someone came and captured this guy (there were at least 300-400 people in soccer fields on the other side of the road and to the right)….only a little eau-de-skunk during the process

Don’t know why, but sometime during the night Matthew relocated from bed to chair….this is where I found him one morning

I am actually on my bike behind this ripstick-ing fourth grader….this is the day after his eye exam so he didn’t bike to school, I dropped him off.   So, I biked down with his ripstick so that he could do something other than walk

It’s nature week here at BNS….the goslings have returned!

More Matthew sleeping….this time with a friend.

and two last pictures from the musical…..

Random Notes

 

• Eye Exams – Just concluded cycling the boys through eye exams.  Kevin’s eyes grow worse, but, still , only half the ‘power’ that I was.  Matthew and Cpher see 20/20(!).  Just shocked by that but hard to express how happy I am about it too…..
• Jock? - Cpher, the other day, says that a kid at school called him a ‘jock’ and he took offense to it.  “Why did he call you that buddy”.  “Well, I’m always either the first or second person picked by the captains when we get split up for any kind of games at gym”……
• Tennis – Kevin had his first tennis lesson in years yesterday; told him after musical that we would go down this road ONCE MORE and if he didn’t want to put in the time outside of the lesson than the lessons would be over pretty quickly.   Think the instructor is a good match for Kevin, and the hope is that Kevin’s in good form at tryouts in early August, not at the end of the season in October. 
• Think we have made the fateful decision to leave Wiley and Holly here at Casa de Gray while we’re gone instead of shipping them off to ‘camp’.  We’ve moved away from crates, they sit out in the living room when we are gone and while they will eat whatever we stupidly leave on the counter near the edge they aren’t overly aggressive about it either.  We’re lining up the usual platoon of neighborhood teenagers to watch cats and dogs but it will be different this time; they’ll have to spend a lot more time down here than normal to ‘be’ with the dogs…..

NHS

 

It’s a big deal, but it’s not a BIG DEAL.  135 sophomores were inducted; class size we think is around 450…

From the Sports Desk

 

Another weekend of, wait, one game?  That’s it?  What’s going on around here???

Cpher:  Ok, Cpher had lacrosse last Wednesday that hasn’t been discussed here.  We lost, 4-3, to Waverly.  A good close game; Cpher had a good game.  Had a few good plays on defense; knocked one kid to the ground as he came in towards the goal; blocked(!) a shot from another kid and then intercepted a pass that was heading to a kid near the goal, took two or three steps, and flung the ball out of our end across half the field.   He’s off’ Monday, game next Wednesday, and then 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday.  Whew!

Will have to get ‘some’ pictures of Cpher for the next Sports Desk update…

Matthew:  11:30 am game in Ann Arbor; turns out that the field there (near the airport) has a Costco about to open right across the street.  So, some wailing that “why can’t they build one in Lansing” and “hmmm, games here will be ok in the future”

We won, 5-1.  Game never really in doubt.  Our first goal was the best header I’ve seen this year, sadly, for them, it was the defender just planting our centering pass into their goal. Matthew had two good shots on goal in the first half and hit both of them wide, high, and to the right. 

Matthew had another great chance in the 2nd half, and could have taken the shot, but, instead made a sweet pass….you can click on the picture below for the video….

Matthew has dribbled up to this spot, right outside of the box….and nobody would have blamed him or chided him for trying to beat this guy and taking the shot, or even just shooting from here.  Instead, he’s going to use the outside of his right foot to gently (and he puts just the right ‘touch’ on the pass) center the ball…..

and his buddy Henry (#3) there just buries the pass for a goal.   What I really like here is that Matthew didn’t stop moving, he cut back to the left and moved around even with the guy who was in front of him to be ready receive another pass…..

And the Drammy goes to…

 

I don’t know what they are called, Drammy’s, Okie’s, whatever.  I didn’t know they gave out drama ‘awards’ until about 10 minutes ago…..

Anything Goes

 

The 5-night run of Anything Goes is over.  The video, if you haven’t seen it, is posted at the BNS website.

The official ‘photo’.  Kevin, as a member of the ship’s crew, with the Captain and Purser.

Kevin isn’t seen very much in the 1st act….he’s certainly a member of the ship’s crew, in the background, toting luggage, a tip of the hat here, a nod there.  He gets some singing time here, on stage with the sailors, but, you really don’t see him again until…..

…he appears with the rest of the cast for “Anyting Goes”.  He stands on the top level of the stage, so, he’s out of the main lighting.  Suzanne took a lot of pictures, only a few turned out well.

I’m not sure what’s going on here….I guess Kevin is off or the Captain and Ian are off.  Kevin thinks he just got his arms up faster than the other two…..

The end of the first act….

Kevin’s more prominent in the second half, he trades in his ships’ crew shirt for a sailor shirt and appears with that crowd for the rest of the show.  Here, Kevin is raising his hand in ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’ to say “I’m a sinner!”…

….and one of the ‘angels’ in Reno Sweeney’s chorus comes over to comfort the poor sinner….

Song starts…

Kevin was not always a sailor, he was ‘promoted’ about 4 or 5 weeks ago.  He was promoted because he’s one of the better male dancers.  Here you can see with his ‘angel’ dancing partner, Ali.

I think it also helps that Kevin’s tall (he easily has 2-4 inches on the other sailors)….and Ali is not short.  Kevin makes a better match with her…..the other report was that Ali’s partner was having trouble with the lifts and other moves…..

We have other photos, not included here, that sent Fric and Frac into hysterics over the sultry nature of Ali’s poses with Kevin.

Kevin spends about half of this song stage left with Ali, especially during the angel-sailor dance….

But when the whole cast is dancing, he’s back over on stage right with Ali…..

Kevin’s last scene on stage is “Buddy Beware”, Erma warning the sailors that she’s a tramp….

This was the best moment, the sailors lined up on the ground and Erma rolled over the top of them, sailor after sailor running ahead to keep her off the ground.

High-stepping towards the finale..

The lift and the end!