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Monday, September 22, 2008

2008 CSC CUP ALL STAR CHAMPIONS!

I was going to blog about politicians and bankers, but I decided to brag instead.

My son's soccer team, Romania, won the 2008 CSC CUP. Don't know what that is? Well, that is the Crestwood Soccer Club's All Star championship weekend.

We are so new to soccer and all that goes with it. We were adjusting to practice once a week and a games on Saturdays and Sundays. This All Star weekend was wild. Each team was divided in half. One half played on Saturday the other on Sunday. Instead of 7 on 7 it was 4 on 4, no goalies, 2 12 minutes halves normally it's 2 20 minutes halves. Each group would play three games. The top four teams advance to the semifinals.

Game 1.
We won 5-0 (I think). Jimmy scored his first ever goal on a penalty kick.


Game 2.

We won, I forget the score. Jimmy was all over the field, and not always in a good way.


Game 3.

We lost, score is irrelevant. Game was sad as other team had some over baring parents and a foul mouthed coach.


We qualify for the semifinals.

Semifinals.
We win 5-3. Jimmy has played more soccer in one day than he has ever played. He is melting down. Despite that, our team wins.


Finals.
This game is a rematch of Game 3. This time we are prepared for them. Our team plays a tight game. Jimmy finds his second wind. The game is tied 1-1 late. At one point, late in the game, Jimmy has an open field. He perfectly dribbles the ball to the goal. The shot is his to take. A potential championship winning shot. The goalie, the only player shorter than Jimmy, was all that stood between Jimmy and destiny. Every parent, coach and team mate was cheering him on. The only time Jimmy had heard cheering and yelling this loud was when he was going the wrong way with the ball.
Guess?
Jimmy stops and turns. Destiny detoured. The game ends in a 1-1 tie. We have a shoot out to break the tie. Each team gets 5 shots. Each team connects for 4 out of 5 shots. Because we had six players, who ever didn't take a shot before must take a shot. That meant Jimmy was to shoot. The other team shot first, score. Now it's Jimmy's turn. If he misses, we lose.

My wife is dying. She is thinking, "that's too much pressure for a five year old." I tell her Jimmy has no idea what's happening. He's just psyched to get to kick the ball at the net.
Jimmy steps up to the ball.
He runs up, cocks his leg back and fires the ball straight down the middle, goal. Game still tied.
The other team misses their next shot.
Our team hits it.
Game over, Romania wins!

As a parent I couldn't have been prouder. Not just because we won, but how we won. Our kids played hard and they played well. Each member of our split team contributed to the championship. Our coach coached through encouragement not intimidation. Our parents cheered equally for each member of our team and as well for the other team's players.

Yes, this was only Widget level soccer. But, it was also a lesson in life. If you try hard you can succeed. Every member of a team contributes to the team's success' and failures. Leaders can get great results via encouragement. There's no pressure if it's fun.

Romania Rocks!

3 comments:

Tara said...

Congrats!!!! I know for you sports dads that that must be a proud moment.

twocheapcents said...

Nice! Good attitude to be teaching him about sports, Mark! Too bad for the kids of the overbearing parents and foul-mouthed coach. Those kids won't manage as well as yours! There's no need for that at the high school level, let alone Jimmy's age group. Well played, and good lesson learned.

Mark Ploch said...

Thanks.