Indoor: Season Three

WHAT AN INDOOR SEASON!


As I have mentioned in the past, my goal was for the team would take the next step in their development and compete with the area travel teams. Well, the Crushers exceeded my expectations. They won three games and lost three games in the Last indoor session at Soccerzone. They played against five travel teams and one house team. They lost to three travel teams. Two of their three losses were by one goal. They lost to one team 7-0. But that team, the Ballhawks, won their games by an average of 6 goals no matter who they faced. The Crushers really surprised me.


I described the first two games in a previous post. So I am going to pick up the story with our third game. In this game we played the house team. As luck would have it, they were short players. We gave them some of our players and we played the game. We ended up winning 8-1, but that was not really the point of this game. This game gave me an opportunity to play kids in new positions. Forwards played full back, full backs played midfield, midfielders played keeper and so on. Some really cool things happened. Gretta got her first goal of the year (read about Gretta and the other players in the Meet the Team posts). My 5 year old son, the Bull Dozer, got to play in the game. He is usually restricted to the role of team manager at games, but regularly plays with the team at practice. The smile on his face when he got to play is one of the moments I will remember about this experience. So, the game went into the win collum and we all had a lot of fun, especially the Bull Dozer.


In our fourth game we played one of the TKO teams. Now TKO is one of the better travel teams in the area. To be honest, this was one of the games I circled as a test. The the team we played was young, but talented. Just before playing us they had gone to indoor nationals, and placed second after loosing a hard fought battle in the finals. I was concerened before the game started because the team was not into it during warmups. They were distracted, their heads were not on soccer. Now this is where my wife ususally reminds me that they are eight and nine year olds. The point is they were not ready to play. It showed in the opening minutes. We gave up a quick early goal. Players were out of position, others were standing around, and there was no energy or determination.


During this indoor season I have realized that the Crushers, more than any team I have ever coached, model my emotional state when they play. If I am intense, they play with intensity. If I am disinterested, they play half heartedly. Most teams model the personality of their coach. This team does it more than any I have ever seen. So, I have to walk a fine line between being intense (not a problem for me), but not being so intense the kids stop having fun. Some days I do a great job, others not so well. After our poor start, I substituted for as many players as I could and we had a "discussion." The intense conversation made all the difference in the world. They went back in the game and played like champs. We lost 4-5 but I was extremely happy with how they played. It seems I got the balance right on that day. This was a pivital game for the Crushers. They learned a very important lesson on that day. The team learned that they could play with any team if they as a team and played hard for the entire game.


On a side note, the parents on this team kill me (I mean that in a good way). I have really been working hard this year on not pushing the players so hard. I have been trying to just let them play, figure somethings out on their own, and not yell as much. I have been trying to talk to them on the side lines instead of yelling to them on the field. Again, I have had good days and days where I have not done as well. As a kid, I was coached by Bob Knight type coaches. While I have never reached his extreme as a coach, I am not the touchy feely kind of coach AYSO strives to create either. Anyway, back to my parents. They keep coming up to me and saying things like, "you can yell at my son, its ok" or "you can push my daughter harder, she needs it." It is a very interesting dynamic.


In our fifth game we played the best team in the league: the Ball Hawks. This is a fast team that plays very physical soccer. If they played any rougher, they would need helmet and pads. During the game, Taz did his best to get us a goal. I think he spent as much time on the ground as he did on his feet. After almost scoring a goal early in the game, two or three guys from the Ball Hawks would attack him and literally knock Taz off the ball everytime he touched it. The defense played good. With a final score like 7-0, you would not expect a coach to say his team played well. What you do not know is that in the first indoor session three months ago, the Crushers would have lost this game by twenty. The crushers played hard. We made some mistakes but we had our chances to score during the game as well. Long story short, it just was not our day. As a told the team after the game, while I was not thrilled with the result, I was thrilled with the individual effort of the players.


In the last game we played a team from Marshall. We won 8-2. This is a team we played in the second game of the season. We won that game 6-5. The Crushers have never played any better then they did on this day. The defense was phenominal. They finally played our defense the way I have had it pictured in my head since August of 2009. For the first time, I felt sorry for the Professor(read about The Professor in our Meet the Team Posts), our keeper or goalie, because he looked so board. One back attacked the ball, while the second back covered the free player and prevented any passes from connecting. The midfield hustled back and attacking the ball or covering opposing players. They shut down the other team almost completely. It was a beautiful thing to watch.


Taz showed up ready to play on this day. He scored six goals in the game, five in the first half. I had to pull him off the our opponents early in the second half or he would have scored more. Now I know why teams always send pultiple players to defend him. When he is on hsi game, you cannot stop him with one player. In the second half, players got to play new positions and everyone had fun. It was a great way to end our indoor season. And it was nice, finally, to master our team defense.


So indoor season, session three, was awsome. I hoped they could compete with the travel teams, and they did. All but one loss could have been reversed with one play. Hard to believe this was the same group of kids that I started with last August. They have come so far and I am very proud of them. Having said that, its time to work on team offense and finishing around the goal. We have about 15 weeks before the Florida Games begin, its crunch time, and I can't wait!


Its that time where I ask you to look at our list of up coming fundraisers and solicite donations. This is a great group of kids and many of them could really use your help. If you would like to make a donation to the team, please send it to U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan, 49079. Please make ckeck payable to AYSO Region 250 and we will make sure they are depositted into the correct account. All donations are tax deductable.


Go Crushers!

The Professor

Remeber, the parent of the players have asked that I use the players nicknames on the blog. The kids seem to prefer it that way.

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The Professor plays keeper or goalie. It is very unusual to find a player at his age that excels in this position. Most kids do not want to play keeper. Who can blame them. Keepers stand in net while other players kick a soccer ball as hard as they can at the goal. The keeper is suppose get in front of the ball. When they are not facing down rockets, they are diving on the ball while players on the other team are trying to kick it. When I was a player decades ago, I had a coach who said keepers had to have good hands, allot of confidence, and bravery. I would say the first two are correct. As a former keeper, I can tell you that you don't need bravery, you need a lack of common sense.

Having said that, The Professor is an excellent keeper. We call him the professor because he looks like a professor when he is not playing soccer. The Professor wears wire glasses with circular lens. He has a very quiet unassuming personality. Like I said he, looks like a professor.

But when he puts on his sports glasses and goalie gloves, he becomes the Keeper. Almost like a super hero. Clark Kent, Peter Parker, the Professor become Superman, Spider man, and the Keeper.

Simply put, the Professor keeps us in games. Our team has been working hard on learning how to play team defense. As happens, there have been break downs and mistakes during the learning process. When these mishaps occur, the Professor is there to stop the other team. He regularly faces runs or breaks aways when one, two, and sometimes three players from the other team are racing at him with no one from his team there. More often then not, he made the save. He routinely makes saves when the other team should have scored. The Professor not only makes the spectacular saves, he very rarely misses the routine saves. He is an excellent keeper. He is so good in fact, I have had other coaches stop me to tell me how impressed they are with his abilities. With the Professor between pipes, I like our chances in Florida.

Check out our fundraisers and continue following then team. If you want to make a donation to the team to help pay for the trip, you can send it to U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan, 49079. Please make ckecks payable to AYSO Region 250. We will make sure it goes into the team's account.

Thanks for logging on and GO CRUSHERS!

Meet the Team

As usual, I will start off explaining that the team parents decided to use the kids' nicknames. Some were worried abouti putting their pictures on the net with their personal information . So a compromise was reached.



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GRETTA


Gretta is the nicest player on the team. Simply put, she is a great kid who always has a smile on her face. Gretta got her name because she is so nice, too nice. Gretta was simply too nice on the soccer field. So I tried to think of analogies or ways to explain to her that it was okay not to be so nice during the game. Last Halloween I used the example of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. I told her I want her to be nice like Jeckyl off the field, but aggressive "mean" like Hyde on the field. Now Gretta's real name starts with the letter G, so I wanted to find a female name starting G. I wanted two names, one for the nice girl and one for the tough soccer player. One of my favorite shows at night is Gretta van Susteren. It is a news show that bears the name of its host. Gretta is one tough lady. So, Gretta it is.


As nice as Gretta is, when she came to our first practice last fall, she was the least skilled player. The only reason I mention this fact is to put the next fact into contex. During our last indoor season, Gretta was the third leading scorer on our team. Gretta has gone from being the first player to give up, to a player who gives everything she has. One of my favorite examples of Gretta's new found confidence and determination occurred in the first game of the last indoor season. We played a team comprised of players from our region. It was a team of all boys. Before the game started, the boys on that team were making jokes about playing girls. I used this as a motivational tool during our pregame talk. When Gretta got into the game, she challenged a player on the other team for the ball along the boards. Gretta put a check on that poor boy that would have made hockey fans cheer. He was not laughing about playing girls while he was picking himself up off the ground.





Gretta was recently moved from full back to forward. Our team plays 7v7 in outdoor: one keeper, two full backs (defense), three midfielders, and one forward. The forward's job is to live in the goalie box, harass the keeper, and kick any ball that roles across the front of the goal into the net. Gretta has taken to her job. She has scored all her goals while in the box, harrassing the keeper, on balls that were kicked across the front of the goal. Gretta is one of those players that needed to find her niche in the sport. She found it. I am looking forward to big things from her in Florida.


It is time for the commercial portion of this post. Please look at our up coming fundraisers. As I have said in the past, we have to raise money to take this trip. Any contribution is greatly appreciated. Please join us at one of our events or send a donation to: U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan, 49079. Please make all checks payable to AYSO Region 250 and please indicate U-10 Team on the Check so it goes into the right account.

GO CRUSHERS!

Meet the Team

If you have missed previous posts or are new to this blog, I refer to all the kids on the team by their team nick names. Some of the parents had concerns about having their kids' pictures and information on the Net. So we came to this compromise. I get to post the pictures of the team, but use nicknames instead of real names. Yes, democracy at work. Too bad people in DC cannot figure it out.

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OLD SCHOOL

Old School is one of the young men on our team. He is one of those kids who will not back down from anyone or anything. He is definitely one of the tough guys on our team. In a previous post, I wrote that a girl named The Wall was the toughest player on the team. What I did not mention then was that Old School is an extremely close second. Old School is one of our full backs (defense). In today's lingo, he is our stopper. Since we play 7v7, we have two backs on the field during a game (1 keeper or goalie, 2 backs or defense, three midfielders, and one forward or striker). Nine out of ten times, he is the player that attacks the ball. When he is on, there are not many kids who can get by him. He also has very good ball skills. There are those who think that you put your best players on offense and your weaker players on defense. Nothing could be further from the truth. Old School could easily play midfield or forward because he has the skills. But Old School is the anchor of our defense.

Old School also has a great leg. Old School and another player, Taz, take most of our free kicks due to the strength and accuracy of their kicks. This is how Old School scores most of his goals. While he starts in a defensive postion, Old School has the green light to take possession of the ball in the defensive end of the field and dribble it into the offensive half of the field and initiate our offense. This is a new option for this player and he is growing into the role of attacker. He actually attacked in one of our recent games. While the opposing keeper made the save, his role as an attacker adds a new level or dimension to our offensive.

Finally, Old School got his name on a cold and wet October evening. We had a scrimmage against another U-10 boys team from our region. While all the kids playing were wearing sweat pants and Under Armor or fleece under their jerseys, Old School showed up in shorts and his jersey. Some saw him and said, "now thats old school." Old School had his name.

Keep logging in and follow Old School and the rest of the team. Don't forget to check out our upcoming fundraising events. If you would like to make a donation, please send a check to U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan 49079. Please make checks payable to AYSO Region 250 and place U-10 Team on the check so it is placed in the correct account.

GO CRUSHERS!

Running ....

I have not had a new post in a while. Funny how life gets in the way of what you want to do sometimes. After my last running post, I was extremely motivated to get back on the road. I had completed my first run of a mile in months. I had no knee pain. I was excited. Having said that, did you ever feel like the universe was out to get you? My running was put on hold for two weeks because of a cracked tooth. That's right, a tooth, not a foot injury, a sore knee, or even a pulled muscle in the back. I was sidelined by a tooth.


I had forgotten the very special kind of pain a bad tooth can produce. Now I have a fairly high threshold for pain. But tooth pain sends me running for the Tylenol. I do not know how or when my tooth cracked, but it did. It got infected. The result, I was in allot of pain. I went to the dentist and had it pulled. There are several options for getting it replaced, like an implant or bridge. Lets just say they all cost more than my first car.


Enough about teeth. I got back on the road last Friday. I ran one and half miles. I ran two miles on Saturday and Sunday. The lay off due to my knee and other issues has left me in poor running shape. But let me say, "damn I missed running!" I have never enjoyed pained like I did this weekend. I was breathing hard, my legs were burning, and I was running pitifully slow. But for the first time in months I was running. Let me say it again, "damn, I missed running!" I had forgotten how much I LOVE TO RUN.


It is funny how one activity can be the key to a whole life style. For me the key is running. When I stop running, I stop cross training, and then I stop eating right. It is a slippery slope to obesity. Thankfully, it works in reverse too. Not only did I run this weekend, I also started cross training again. One day of band training on Saturday and weight lifting on Sunday. I am actually thinking about what I eat again. All triggered by running. It is Monday morning and I am sore in all the right places. Good pain, the kind of pain that lets you know you worked out hard. I cannot wait to go for a run today.


Hopefully things will continue to move forward. The universe will no longer conspire against me. Despite the tooth set back, I am still on course to run the Borgess 5k. Wish me luck, and GO CRUSHERS.

The Great Tomale Sale of 2010

Make sure you check the list off upcoming fundraisers. There have been some changes and additions, so check it out.

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You will have to understand, up until a few weeks ago I did not know what a tomale was. I had heard the term. I knew it was food. But as a Scotch-Irish kid from New York, I thought Taco Bell was Mexican Food. So when one of the parents suggest a tomale sale for a fundraiser I didn't blink. The phrase "ignorance is bliss" seems to apply to this situation. Well, I learned. while the sale was a great success, we earned every penny. Though it was allot of work, the families of the players got to know each other allot better.

Making tomales is a large undertaking, really huge. Understand, we made over 6,000 tomales. Our tomales were made with pork. So our ordeal began with purchasing hogs and roasting them. One family took on this task. Old School's, one of our full backs (defense), mom, dad, and extended family spent days cooking hogs. Once the meat is cooked, then the you have to pull it off the bone. Another initial step is cutting and cleaning red peppers. Lets just say I came home one night from work to a kitchen full of people cutting and cleaning peppers. I joined in. The process is not difficult, the hard part is keeping the peppers and or the pepper juices out of your eyes. Cutting these peppers is like cutting unions. Make sure you do not rub your eyes, painful. Anything you eat for hours after cutting peppers is flavored with peppers. What fun.

Then we had to rely on the grandmothers of Old School and Dallas. These ladies have been making tomales for longer then I have been alive. Old School's grandmother seasoned the meat using the peppers and her secret recipe. When I say secret, I mean no one is allowed in her kitchen when she does it. Dallas's grandmother made the meseca. Meseca is a dough made with corn meal that forms the breading around the meat. At this point let me apologise. Again, I have no expereince with authentic mexican food. I am trying to explain this process despite my ignorance of the topic. So if anyone of hispanic discent reads this post, please forgive me. I am doing the best I can.

When making tomales, you also have to get and prepare corn husks. Once the corn husks have been washed and seperated, you spread the meseca onto the corn husks. Again, my ignornace will show. When you spread the meseca you have to totally cover the bottom two thirds of the husks. When spread, the meseca must not be too thin or too thick. Lets just say it is an art. I watched women spread meseca over the husk with a spoon in seconds. This is not a skill I was able to acquire. While I have never made tomales, I have spent years either putting up drywall and mudding the walls or fixing holes in walls. Meseca is about the same consistancy as drywall mud. So I got a plastic puddy knife (I used a new one) and made like I was working on walls. To my surprise, it worked really well. As it turns out, it works better if you break the handle off. By the end of the fundraiser, broken puddy knives out numbered spoons two to one.

Finally, you add the meat, fold the tomales, steam them in huge pots, and you have tomales. I finally tasted my first tomale. It was good. We sold over 6,000 tomales. This was by far our largest and most successful fundraiser to date.

This fundraiser also reminded me of the good in people. This is strange to say, I know. This fundraiser was so big that to pull it off we needed the help of people beyond the families of our players. Not only did extended family members help out, but friends of families and their families donated hours to make this fundraiser possible. People with no kids on the team, took off time from work to make our success possible. Simply put, without their generosity, we would have not succeeded. But succeed we did. We made over three thousand dollars in profit on this fundraiser. In so doing, we took our first big step in raising the money we need for the trip to Florida.

Thank you to all the people donated their time and effort. The following is a list of some of those people: Susan Runkel, Barb Smith, Santos and Jody Guerrero, Neal and Rae Schilling, Francisco Granados, Marisol Vasquez, Juan, Edna, and Clarissa Vaquez, Pat Nolan, Billie Sue, Caleb, and Marjorie Mae Jones, Kay Renelds, Kathy Homola, Jennifer Conklin, Marty Skidmore, Judy Chadwick, Tom and Pam Stermer, Estella Carrizales, Trisha Somerville, and Monica Wilson. Again to all who helped us, thank you.

Several businesses also helped the team with donations of money and the ingredients needed to make the tomales. It takes allot of stuff to make over 6,000 tomales. The donations from these businesses kept the costs of this fundraiser low. We would like to thank the following businesses:

The Acapulco Restaurant in Paw Paw, Supermercado Guanajuato in Wyoming, Bailey Terra Nova Farms in Schoolcraft, and Simply Meats in Schoolcraft.

That was the Great Tomale Sale of 2010. I had my first tomale ever. And after serving 6,ooo tomales to people, if I never see another tomale, it will not be too soon. The parents have formed a support group: the Chingalinga Tomaledoras (damn tomale makers). We are closer as a team. We raised approximately $3,000.00.

Please checkout out list of upcoming fundraisers. If you would like to send a donation to the team please send it to: AYSO Region 250, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan 49079. Please make check payable to AYSO Region 250. Also, indicate on the check the U-10 team so your donation goes to the correct account.

The Third Season of Indoor Soccer Begins

In my last post about the team I posed this question: will the Crushers be able to take the next step and compete with the travel teams? The question was answered this weekend!

When the last indoor season ended, the Crushers were beating house teams and other AYSO teams. However, they were losing rather convincingly to travel teams. After eight weeks of focusing on ball control, defense, and passing, the Crushers began their second indoor season with two games against travel teams. While they lost the first game 3 to 4, what impressed me is that they played with a new found confidence and determination.

We played the Hacksaws in the first game. The Hacksaws are a group of kids from Paw Paw, Michigan. Their team is comprised of several good soccer players and the rest of the kids are boys that excel in other sports like football, basketball, or baseball and who wanted to play soccer in the winter. They are a very aggressive team that plays a rough, but clean style of soccer. They are the team no one likes to play because, win or lose, they will give you a tough game. But they did give the Crushers some motivation when they started making fun of the fact that we have girls on our team. When the young ladies on the team heard this, they were fired up.

During our game, the Crushers gave up a quick goal early. I will have to admit I was worried that a rout might be on. But like I have said before, if nothing else these kids are fighters. The Crushers settled down and began to play hard. Our defense was outstanding. The boys who were laughing about playing girls, were not laughing when those girls put them into the wall or put them on the ground. The first half ended 1-0 Hacksaws. It was quite fitting that the Crushers first goal was scored by Dallas (read about Dallas in the Meet the Team section). Greta, another young lady on our team stole the ball along the boards and passed it to Sonic, who passed it to Dallas, who made a move and used some of her speed to get past the only defender. Ultimately, she beat the goal keeper with a low shot on the left side. The teams traded goals in the second half. Taz scored on a direct kick and off a steal that lead to a break away on the goal keeper. The keeper never had a chance.

Ultimatley, the game was decided on two plays. First, one perfect shot against our keeper, the Professor. The ball was kicked high and while on the way down, it crossed behind the cross bar of the goal. The Professor's hand missed the ball by less than an inch. It was a great shot. The second play was a shot taken by Taz that bounced over their keeper's head. Their keeper turned after the ball went over his head, and made a brillant diving save pushing the ball to the side. Again, a play decided by inches. All in all it was a great game, played by evenly matched teams. It was fun to be a part of.

In the second game we played a travel team from Marshall, Michigan. They were a GOOD team. As it turns out they tied with two other teams for second in their WYSMA outdoor travel team league. We had one thing we had going for us. The Marshall Team played a game right before our game. This game started with us scoring the first quick goal. Taz took the kick off, made a pass to Sonic who took a solid shot from the left wing, beating the keeper on the far side. It was a great soccer play to watch. The teams traded goals with the Crushers remaining tied or in the lead until midway through the second half. In the second half, Taz, one of our Captains, got leg cramps and had to sit out for a while. It was 4 to 3 advantage Crushers when he left the game. As I have mentioned before, Taz is the heart of this team. With Taz out, the Marshall team, to their credit, took advantage of his absence to take a 5 to 4 lead late in the second half.

In past games the Crushers would have accepted the loss, but not on this day. On this day the Crushers responded to the challenge. First, as soon as Marshall scored their 5th goal, Taz demanded he be put back into the game. When Marshall took the lead, their play grew rougher, again not dirty, but no one was getting any free run at their keeper. Taz was back in the game for only a few minutes, when he took possession of the ball. Three moves later, the ball was in the back of the net. Taz struck again. The score was 5 to 5.

The play intensified. With less then five minutes to play, Taz made a pass to Sonic. Taz was tripped, but no call was made. Sonic took the pass, and made his own pass to Izzy (another of our male players), Sonic was taken down. Just before Izzy took his shot, the whistle blew. Izzy ripped a beautiful shot past the keeper. BUT NO GOAL. The ref called the foul on Sonic. To all the coaches out there, let this be a lesson. As the game became more physical, I started to complain about the lack of calls to the ref. When Taz was fouled, I yelled again. When Sonic was fouled, well how does that old saying go . . . be careful what you wish for . . . . I finally got the call, but it nearly cost us the game.

One of the things I love about Taz is that he is a smart player, who knows the rules of the game, and keeps his head in the big moments. While people, including players and coaches, were yelling about the call and the no goal, Taz ran over picked up the ball. He asked the ref where to place it, waited for the whistle, and immediately took the shot. While so many of us were concentrating on the call, his head was in the game. He kept playing. He scored the winning goal before some players on the other team even knew what had happened.

A few tense moments later, and the game was over. The Crushers had won 6 to 5. I know I talked about Taz allot in this game. But make no mistake about it, this was a team win. Our keeper, the Professor, made several outstanding saves to preserve our lead or maintain the tie during the game. Some were one on one plays where he was the only player between Marshall and a goal. The full backs, our defense, played hard. Instead of the Professor saving the defense all the time, there were several times in this game where they saved him. It was a hard fought game and good win.

Have the Crushers taken the next step? Have they started competing with the Travel Teams? It seems the answer is YES. It is early in the season. We have four more games against four more tough teams. But I think the team as turned a corner.

GO CRUSHERS!

Running ...

As I explained in the in my first post, I am a runner. Better said, I was a runner. 2009 was not a good year for me. I became too involved in soccer and my running suffered. I was coaching three teams and helping with a fourth. One of the teams was the Crushers. I had practice every night of the week. I was the Assistant Commissioner of the the region, so I was heavily involved in the administration of the league. I stopped running, that lead to no cross training, which led to a poor diet . . . . Long story short, I gained back the 35 pounds I had lost over the previous two years. To make matters worse, I suffered a small tear to the meniscus in my right knee playing soccer, so I could not run at all.



Fast forward to this year, I am still coaching, but I stepped down as the Assistant Commissioner of the league. Once the spring season ends, I will be down to one soccer team. I will not coach more than two teams at one time again. So, my life is more balanced.



As far as my knee goes, I am extremely happy to say I ran one mile yesterday pain free. Yes, I am finally able to run again. I would like to thank Dan and Kerrie at Bronson Physical Therapy. Eight weeks of torture under their expert guidance has fixed the problem. In case they read this, I am still stretching every day and have incorporated their exercises into my strength training sessions. Its been a long road back. There was no running in December or January. I had to build from an eighth of a mile to three quarters of a mile in February. Finally, yesterday, I ran a full mile.



So, now I start training, ever so cautiously, for a 5k. If all goes well, I will run the 5k at the Borgess Run for the Health of It 5k and Half Marathon on April 24, 2010. I hope to run a marathon before the end of the year. But I have to go one step at a time and right now, the goal is 3.1 miles. So, wish me luck. Thanks again Dan and Kerrie.

Meet the Team

DALLAS

I should begin by explaining that some of the parents were leery about putting the pictures and names of their children on the internet. (No Aunt TeeTee, it was not me.) So it was agreed, we would use the players nicknames on the blog. The kids have all picked up nicknames over the last seven months. They become quite indignant when I call them by their given names. So, nicknames it is.



Meet Dallas. As I mentioned in a previous post, Dallas is fast, like Hussein Bolt fast. She is the fastest player on the team. Come to think of it, she is the fastest player I've seen on any U10 team. Not only is she fast, she is one tough player. Once she realized it was okay to hit the boys while playing, she has become a force to be reckoned with. Yes, there is hitting in soccer, but that is a story for another post.

Dallas is a quite player, she never says much. Dallas' mother promises me, Dallas is alot more vocal at home. Dallas got her nickname because of her love of the Dallas Cowboys. This is a point of contention between she and I because I am a lifelong Washington Redskins fan. Having lived a large part of my life in Buffalo, New York, I am also Buffalo Bills fan. So you can imagine how much I hate the Cowboys. While she does not say much, it is surprising how often she "happens" to wear her Cowboys gear to practice. Like I said, tough kid.

Dallas is one of our mid fielders. We put that speed to good use. During indoor season she has improved her ball handling and started scoring goals. I have great hopes for her at the tournament in Florida.

I should also mention that Dallas' mom is a proud member of the Chingalinga Tamaleros (damn tamale makers). Our most recent fundraiser was making and selling tamales. During this was an event, we made over 6,000 tamales. All of the families worked very hard to raise money for kids. Look for the next post on fundraising and read all about the Great Tamale Sale of 2010.

So, become a follower and keep up with Dallas and the rest of the team.

Go Crushers!