From The Sports Desk – Lacrosse Week #2

Game #3:  Lost to Haslett 3-0.  Not much to talk about here….we didn’t have any real chances and were probably lucky to get away with a 3-0 loss.  The good news?  Gave up the 3 goals early and played even for the last 2/3 of the game.  The bad news?  Wish Cpher hadn’t ducked (ducked!) away from a shot; he screened his goalie and then ducked out of the way…the goalie had no chance.

(setting a pick.  It’s a little thing, but, a lot of his teammates don’t think to do this)

Game #4:  Lost to Holt 6-5; Holt scores as time expires for the win.

Matthew continues to juggle soccer and lacrosse; it actually works out really well this year and will probably be a disaster next year.  His soccer team practices from 5 pm to 6:30 on Monday and Wednesday nights.  Lacrosse games start at 7:15 on those nights, so, he can get a full soccer practice in and get over to lacrosse in time for warm-ups.  He misses Tuesday lax practices due to the conflicts but is at Thursday practices.

I’m going to become a broken record on these two points this year; Matthew is easily the best defensive midfielder and the most physical midfielder.  Period.  Too many kids play defense by just swinging the stick….Matthew gets in good position and if he swings the stick follows with his body.  It is a recipe for a lot of success and why he is the go to guy on penalty kill right now.   He is also doing very well carrying the ball forward under pressure; a bonus because we are usually a man down when he gets the ball to carry forward.

Cpher is a rock on defense; our defense is really big and does not hesitate to punish the offense of other teams if they venture too far inside.  This results in a lot of outside shots and, if our goalie isn’t screened and can see them, a whole lot of easy saves. 

Ok, after watching it again I guess I should mention that two Matthew turnovers led directly to goals.  Matthew would like to say that none of his teammates were open for passes (too true, his middie line mates don’t understand the basics at times) but as I told him, even still, he can’t turn over the ball and lead to direct runs on our goalie.  Because no matter how good our defense is; it is hard to stop someone running at full speed from midfield without anyone in his way.

One final thing….a lot of these lacrosse games have been played in stadiums so the video angles have been really good!  But this game was stupid cold; had to be below freezing with the wind chill!  You can see the boys in sweatshirts and pants!

From The Sports Desk – State Cup #1 and League #1

State Cup Game #1:  The first weekend of the season has us playing a double-header against the Michigan Burn; apparently they weren’t too helpful with the scheduling so instead of two trips 90 minutes away we do it all in one long day.

For the State Cup game the hope is we can win big and maximize the goal differential because we are almost certain underdogs in the next game.  And we’ll need those goals to advance as a wild card.  It was very windy, and even though we got off to a good start (scored a minute in) and led at the half 2-0 we couldn’t close it out and only won 2-1.  Click for the video

(Things I like.  Matthew, in the center of the field, choosing which option he things is best.  He just beat a kid to get to this spot and instead of dribbling further he swings it out to his left to hit #13 in stride.  Didn’t work out though….)

I thought Matthew played well; no real complaints.  The new coach, in a somewhat surprising move to me, played everyone about equally.  An interesting change from last year….it has been apparent that some (but not all) favorites of the old regime aren’t the favorites they once were.

DATE:  4/18/15

TEAM: 02 BOYS BLUE VS 02 MI BURN

RESULT: WON 2 - 1

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

The boys looked positive as a team. We penetrated the opposition with ease, and time and time again created goal-scoring opportunities through good wide play and central play. Midfield three linked up well with the attacking three, along with the right and left back supporting in good attacking areas.

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

We created a number of golden opportunities in front of goal. We need to be more clinical and punish teams showing a ruthless touch in front of goal. By wasting many opportunities allowed Burn to stay in the game and they almost tied it towards the end.

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

• As we warmed into the game we looked solid and comfortable as a defensive unit, however concentration levels need to remain high.
• We contribute to our own demise at times, by making poor decisions and allowing the opponent a sniff at goal.

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

• Don’t let the ball bounce! EVER!!
  Show more aggression and challenge your opponent with more conviction
  Keep your shape and discipline; we started the game poorly, wasteful when building out the back.

OVERALL COMMENTS

As a team we showed good attacking intent. We got the ball down and prioritized connecting small positive passes. With this positive start players looked for early opportunities to penetrate in behind the opponent. We penetrated in wide and central areas through a variety of ways. Players dribbled and beat the opponent in 1 v 1 situations, created numbers up scenarios and also played some accurate through balls for the forward runs made. Its very important players have high concentration levels throughout the game. Defensively we switch off way to often and look sloppy when defending. We need to pride ourselves on clean sheets.

League Game #1:  So we have lunch and then head to a different field to play the same team again.  And where I thought their goalie played well and stopped us from many opportunities in the first game….in this game he wasn’t the same and we blasted them 8-1.

(click.  video.  Matthew is about to cross this ball and it will end up in the net after a shot and a tip-in in the next 5 seconds)

Everyone played well in this game; Matthew has 3 assists…his first one was a chip over the defenders to the striker that was a thing of beauty and that Matthew is/was/still is very proud of.  In what will prove to be a theme in a lot of FTSD posts coming up; Matthew is playing a physical brand of sports right now and is overpowering his opponents with his style.

From The Sports Desk – Lacrosse Week #1

Monday:  A 4-3 win over East Lansing.

Trying to take more video of lacrosse games this year (click above for the highlights); Cpher is working for this ball here, Matthew is running into the play and will actually get the ball but have the play blown dead for some imaginary foul on Cpher.

There are two 7/8 teams this year and the way they divided them up is more than a little strange to me; it seems like the other team is made up primarily of the friends of the two coaches son.  This, while I guess is good for those boys, has the strange effect of putting the bulk of the good defense, and the best goalie, on our team.  So we’ll see if we can score goals consistently.

Scoring wasn’t a problem here; we were up 4-1 until they scored two late to make it closer than it looked.  A pretty dominating performance overall.  Thought both boys played well but nothing very notable to write about here.

Wednesday:  A 6-5 loss to Grand Ledge.

Click above for the video.

No Cpher for this game; he was travelling west with Suzanne to San Francisco for Melissa’s wedding.  And our defense suffered some because of it; the 7th grader who replaced him did ok but got beat for 3 of the 6 goals……

Matthew, well, he reminded me (and showed the coaches) that he is probably the best defensive midfielder they have.  Just always in there banging and fighting for balls….never out of position on defense (and the coaches definitely noticed this; he became the midfielder who was always on the field when we were a man down….like in the picture above; he’s closet to the ball up top).  I think a lot of this is his soccer defense showing through; he knows where to be and how to mark his guy and just his inherit ‘toughness’…..I’ve written here many times how Matthew doesn’t take shit off of anybody.

GL is one of those teams that plays to win at all times; their best kids played almost 90% of the game.  And we had a chance to win at the end; with 90 seconds left we took a penalty and Matthew did not come out because they wanted to make sure the other middie got enough playing time and after they scored the winning goal our best middie didn’t come onto the field for the last 40 seconds to try and tie it up for the same reason.  I’d rather have it that way than the other I guess.

Spring Break 2015 – Post #2

The last day in Florida had us taking it easy….a trip to The Track for some go-karting and mini-golf and cleaning up and packing before we head out Friday early.

 

The boys were not happy that I was going to bring the GoPro and even more unhappy to see that I was going to wear it on my head.  Begged me not to do it. Said I would look like a dork.  I always look like a dork, their words fell on deaf ears!  Click on either of the next pictures for the video.

 

But when they saw the video afterwards they were glad I did!  This is from the first race; Matthew is behind me and I’m out to swerve through this family and Matthew said later that he was like “Damn Dad!”   I ended up slowing down so he could pass me later on and I could get some video of him….

In the second race there was no need to slow down….my cart was a dog!  I could not power up the hill and Matthew passed me instantly laughing at what I was saying (“Oh No”) and laughing that he was leaving me in the dust…..

Christopher was out here but both times ended up too far away from Matthew and I to get any kind of video of him.  Oh well.

Friday had us driving up into Georgia to visit the Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary.  This was a Christopher request; sort of a payback for suffering through wrestling.

     

      

      

      

      

Don’t feel like providing descriptions for each photo; suffice it to say we had a good time on our private tour.  The Sanctuary takes in animals abandoned by zoos, circuses, and by people and are world-famous for their BLT, a bear, a lion, and a tiger who were rescued from a drug dealer as cubs and still live and play together today.

Needed to go by Pittsburgh again so decided I’d rather do it driving home than make a trip down from Michigan.  This took us way east…but an unexpected bonus was stopping at the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia.

 

the obligatory panorama….

 

I’m not sure what is going on with the skinny photo there…….

 

Was a good stop; glad we did it and it allowed the boys to get out of the car for a little bit.  Need to come back here and do some whitewater rafting sometime!

Grand Haven and Lake Michigan Ice

Oooh, started this post and didn’t finish it!  Guess I’d better do that now!

When we headed out west for the wrestling tournament the ONLY way Suzanne was coming along was if we headed out to Grand Haven and checked out the lake ice.  Fair enough.  And it was a beautiful day to do it….

But, where we thought we would just drive by and check it out….well, we ended up getting out and walking out on the ice to the lighthouse and it turned into one of the best things we’ve ever done in Michigan.  The last two years have been extremely cold winters….and the lakes have frozen over.  When we were there, the Great Lakes were at 82% frozen.   This means that lake water levels will rise this year (about a foot or two) and probably mean we will have a colder than usual summer).

And you could walk easily 200-400 yards off shore….heck, you could probably walk as far as the eye could see…not that many people went much further than the lighthouse (this is a panorama from the lighthouse looking out and around)

 

There were so many different ice formations it is hard to describe.  Boulders, Giant Ice Islands, the shards in that first photo up above….just really cool.

 

This is looking from the lighthouse basically back at the beach where we played soccer this summer….that won’t be happening anytime soon.  Just amazing to see how the sand dunes have been distorted by all of the ice.

     

The boy had a great time exploring…..

     

and I guess it made the 5 hours of sitting at the tournament for 90 seconds of wrestling worth it.  This, and the 2nd place finish I guess.

A Little Too Close To Home

“MERIDIAN TWP. – A 34-year-old Okemos man and registered sex offender has been arraigned on felony criminal sexual conduct charges after police say he assaulted two children in a Meridian Township cemetery.

Joshua David Harding was arraigned today on two counts each of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency, both felonies. He also was charged as a four-time habitual offender, Meridian Township police said. He was denied bond.

Township police said the assault happened Wednesday in a wooded area on the northern edge of East Lawn Memorial Gardens cemetery, in the 2400 block of Bennett Road. Police have not disclosed details of the reported assault on the children, a boy and a girl.

Police said Harding agreed to turn himself in after he was contacted by police.

Harding was convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration for a 1999 offense and served eight years in state prison, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records. He later was convicted of two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a misdemeanor, for a 2011 offense, records show. He served more than two years in prison for that crime.

He is listed on Michigan’s sex offender registry, records show.”

 

 

The Wednesday before Spring Break is a bright sunny day….my goal is to get the boys outside and try and sell some mulch for the lacrosse fundraiser.  We get out there about 4:30…..and we are up at the corner of Graystone and Sower at a house, and the boys see their friends run by, and we don’t think much of it, and we finish, and we go home.

About 45 minutes later there are more squad cards surrounding our neighborhood than we can count.  Meridian Township Police, Ingham County Sheriff’s, State Police…they are everywhere.  And it turns out the two kids that the boys say run by were the two that were assaulted…they were running to the retired policeman’s house after the incident.

We still don’t have all the details (the guy approached them, the 10-yr old girl wanted to leave but the 13-year old boy wanted to stay and it went downhill from there).  The kids were playing in our backyard the weekend before we left; they were back there on the Sunday when we returned. 

The thing that will stay with me for a while is that if those kids go back to the woods fairly often, most of the time they are accompanied by Cpher.  And I wonder (I wonder a lot) what that incident would have been like if he would have been there.  Would it even have started (the kids, like most kids, are quite a bit smaller than Cpher) if the guy saw this 6’-1” kid there?  What would Cpher have done if the guy approached?  The guy, by all reports, is big, 6-5’', 250 lbs……

From The Sports Desk – Friendlies

So, the soccer club did something a month back that was strangely reminiscent of our old club….no third session at Wixom, instead, we’ll be playing intraclub friendlies outside at the end of March.

Now, if presented at the beginning of the year as the plan there wouldn’t have been any complaint….the logic in the switch is pretty convincing.  But, to present it midyear it is simple a way to save some $$$. 

Anyway, it was damned cold for all of the games on both weekend.   The first weekend was a 4-0 win against the U13 White Team….Matthew had a goal on a play that he was ruled offsides on the field for but was clearly onside on when you look at the video.  We lost to the U14 Blue Team 1-0 in a game I wish he played more of……it was the only game we were challenged in and I thought we did really well against a group of boys that were a lot bigger and faster.  We wiped out the U12 Blue Team 4-0 to finish the first weekend.

Videos below if interested

U13 White

The goal.  Don’t understand how the other team decided to put their arms up to signal offsides, heck, even at the moment Matthew took the shot he was still onsides.  

U14 Blue

The goal against us….Matthew is there in white near #3 in front of the goal.  The kid with the ball has just beaten all three of the white kids to the left of him (grrrr) and now Matthew has to move off of the guy he is guarding and try and stop him.  Much like when this happens in basketball, Matthew is in a hopeless position here.  But….I wish he had gone stronger at the guy with the ball…he doesn’t and the guy goes by him too for the shot.

U12 Blue

Need to get Suzanne to take pictures with the camera during these games….screen grabs from the videos suck.

But this one is neat because it shows Matthew running on to this ball and what his options are in front of him.  And he puts the ball exactly where it needs to go, in the gap between the two defenders where the forward is running to.  We don’t get a goal here, but, it was a nice scoring chance.

Spring Break 2015 – Post #1

Only three of us heading south to Grandma and Gramps’ house this year; Suzanne will be heading out to San Francisco for Melissa’s wedding the Wednesday after we get back so she’s not here, so……

I remember when I would blog every single day of a spring break vacation – just not enough going on during this trip to justify that level of effort.  We left right after school ended on Thursday and drove south to Bowling Green for the night. 

Day 2 included a stop at the Air and Space Museum in Huntsville, AL.  The boys thought is was ok, and I guess I’m with them, it was OK, but, I can think of five air and space museums off the top of my head that are better….and I thought this was an over-priced waste of time.  Oh well.

Oh well, we made Niceville around 6 pm Friday night…plenty of time to hit the pool.  The boys remarked that the pool “doesn’t seem as big as I remember it”.  Might have something to do with their increased size! 

I didn’t touch that coldish water…my view was strictly from the hot tub in the foreground.

Like so…..

 

This boy, again, concludes the trip with red bumps covering a significant fraction of his body.  Chlorine from the pool and hot tub?  He’s in plenty of other pools.  Something in the Gulf at this time of the year?  Some strange mutant genetic deal?  Who knows…..

Stop One of the first Destin-FWB mini-golf bowling challenge; Big Kahuna’s.  Need to get down here in the summer sometime when the water park is open…I’ve only ever been there with Kevin….but, given the boys comments, I’m not sure they will be thrilled about it (they are too old and too cool).  

Anyway, the course was quiet (we were going to go to The Track BUT that place was a madhouse) and Cpher, who can very easily just check out and not try during these events comes through and beats Matthew and me to take the first round.

 

Stop Two is at Uncle Buck’s FishBowl and Grill; the new bowling alley that was just built at Destin Commons.  And it was kind of cool for a bowling alley….a very nice aquarium motif

Although the various aquatic animals at the ball returns tended to get in the way of, um, bowling.  I didn’t take a picture of the octopus next to us but that was really in the way….

The balls are also all fish/ocean themed

 

Dad pulls off the win in the second leg…but it was close, Matthew is really good and I needed a big number in the 10th frame to seal the win.  Cpher, who would prefer bumpers, was really throwing the ball well in the 2nd game and was just unlucky…there were any number of shots that should have been strikes.  Still managed to get spares in three of the first four frames and I was very happy with how we did (he was pissed off about not getting the strikes)

One Debbie Downer note….Cpher accidentally hit Matthew and my drinks and spilled them everywhere….and the staff seemed more than happy to let us clean it up and sit at the front desk and chat it up.  Had to say something as we left….it’s not like they were super busy and couldn’t help.

Stop 2 of the golf challenge; Goofy Golf in Fort Walton Beach.  I won this also.  Matthew had a melt down, lost 5 bucks to me and then 10 bucks when he ill advisedly went double or nothing.

Cpher did put the ball inside the snake mouth at the end of the round to earn a free game though!

Hit all of the typical beach spots; we got some lacrosse in on Saturday at the Gulf Island National Seashore.  Monday we went to Furious Seven and then over to the beach at Destin (that spot was the most crowded of the trip) where Cpher got stung by ‘something’ and we had to cut short our stay

We did have fun telling Cpher that Matthew and I were ready to pee on him if needed!

Wednesday was out to Navarre and it was gorgeous.  No shells, but, we all had a good time jumping waves, catching waves, and getting a little sun burnt.