As we divided and conquered on Friday night, Steve took Cannon to his game and sent a beautiful sunset picture.
Hunter returned the favor with the same beautiful sunset 20 minutes down the road along the freeway.
Cannon ended the night with a win. He had some excitement while in the goal box (at this age all the kids take turns as goalie) and he blocked a penalty kick. That was pretty much the excitement for that quarter and the rest of his time was spent sitting in the goal box! I think he likes being on the field a little bit more.
I was with Hunter at a new massive sports complex in the area for a tournament (Steve joined us as soon as Cannon’s game was over.) During Hunter’s game, he took a pretty tough hit that had him on the ground for just a bit. He ended up walking off the field and needed a few minutes before going back in. As the player from the other team was running by our bench after the next play, he said, “Hunter, are you okay?” It was then that I realized this was a kid Hunter had played with a few years back. They continued to be friendly physical the rest of the game – all in good fun. They ended with a win.
Bennett had the first game on Saturday morning and he had the most beautiful left footed goal. He’s learning timing on crosses and he was perfectly timed running in. I wish I would have caught his excitement on video. Even with his goal, it wasn’t enough to win and we were handed the first loss of the weekend.
We rushed from Bennett’s game straight to Hunter’s game. Where they pulled off another well orchestrated win. (You know what’s also beautiful? 24 new turf fields!)
While I continued to attend soccer games, we decided we couldn’t have it be a soccer-only weekend – Steve went to Hallie’s tennis tournament where she competed with several teammates. She continues to impress us with her growth in tennis. She works hard at it and it hasn’t always come easy and there are still so many areas she’s looking to grow – but she performed better than we could have hoped. She ended up beating the #1 varsity player at her own school, and the #2 varsity player at a rival school – and she’s two years younger. We keep telling her, she has the skills to win, she just has to stay strong mentally. She has to believe she can win.
I stayed back at soccer and watched one half of Bennett’s game before rushing off to watch one half of Hunter’s game (where they secured a place in the championship game).
Something unique about our club soccer is we are a no-Sunday play club – it’s the whole reason why we play soccer with them, it aligns with our beliefs. But no-Sunday play is hard when you enter tournaments because championship games are always on Sunday. We have found a few tournaments where this isn’t the case, but the majority are run this way. If we make it to the championship, we either forfeit or arrange to play the following day. Let me tell you – very few teams are willing to play later, and I totally get it. Most teams would much prefer a guaranteed win and not play, then chance playing a losing. (Especially when we already beat the teams during tournament play.)
So we ended the tournament knowing we made it to the championship, but unsure if we’d actually play it. Today, there was a game that determined who would join us in the championship. Our coach knew going into that game that one of the teams would absolutely take the forfeit win, and the other would likely play us – you can imagine who we were cheering for! Lucky for us, the team willing to play us was the team that secured a spot. We’ve already beat them during the tournament, but they are willing to play us this week and we are so grateful.
By the end of Saturday – we were all tired. Of course, if I were to say that to my kids I’m sure they would eye roll and ask how I can be that tired when I didn’t even play. It’s a valid question – but it feels like I ran a marathon!
