Lax: Only one game this week; a lacrosse game on Wednesday that I missed most of because of work. So, no pictures. Didn’t miss much, we lost 4-1 and the whole team seemed pretty lethargic.
I did reach out to the coaches about Matthew’s playing time; they made some structural changes to how they ran things and he was not on the fourth line this game. So, for the official record, here goes.
“Hello Coaches,
First, I appreciate all of your efforts with the boys, to date, and in the future.
But, after last week's games, and after some time to reflect on whether I even wanted to send this email this weekend, I want to bring to your attention something that you may or may not have noticed. For having five players sit each game, the playing time seems to need some attention. Matthew played on the fourth middie line all three games last week. I know in any of those games he was lucky to play 2 minutes in any quarter, and sometimes had only half of that.
My observation is that your game plan is to rotate the lines onto the field from 1 to 4 in each quarter, starting at 1 at the beginning of each quarter. And this is all well and good if all goes well and you are able to sub when you want during each quarter. But, of course, due to how the play on the field occurs, you can't, and I can tell you what happens to the 3rd line (sometimes) and 4th line (almost all the time). They aren't out there very much.
Against EL, at the end of the third quarter, I think you recognized the issue and finally did what I have seen in previous years; kept the middie line on the field that was on the field at the end of the quarter on the field for the start of the next. I'd like to suggest another approach as well; if, because of play, there are issues, throw the middie line on as an attack or defensive line once each half. Or, make sure you rotate the boys among the lines a bit more frequently.
Again, thanks for coaching. I've coached soccer and basketball for the last 5 years, I know that playing time discussions are thankless tasks. But, I don't think I'd be doing Matthew, and other boys who are deeper on the middie roster, any favors by not saying anything.
Thanks!”
There are seven(!) lacrosse games starting Sunday and ending next Sunday. Yoi!
Soccer: No games; did have a pretty decent practice on Thursday; they ran 1v1 drills and I had to text Suzanne and tell her that Matthew put on a pretty dominant performance….nobody scored on him and he scored quite a bit on others…and often would take the ball from one of the boys while on defense and get off a pretty decent opportunity of his own.
Soccer game on Saturday morning; Matthew will miss one of the seven lacrosse games for this.
A lot of soccer drama going on as the year comes to an end…..I have a pretty detailed post about all of this written but want to have all the information together before posting it.
