Our Life as a Military Family » Soccer

Matthew as Goalie

marineswife — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:23:31 +0000

I only have one picture! His team has 6- and 7-year olds. They play 7 on the field. One as goalie, 3 as forwards, and 3 as defense. The defense and the forwards are not allowed to cross the middle line. It’s to help them learn to stay in and play their positions. The goalie has been someone different throughout the games to give each player a chance to try it out. I love the rules for this age group. They play 10-minute quarters and substitutions are only made at that time. Each person is usually sitting out for one of the 10 minutes and playing the other 30 minutes. Mostly depends on how many players show up for the game.

In this game, Matthew started out as goalie. Roy took videos, but I do have this one photo of him in the special shirt. He was excited!

Alex as Goalie

marineswife — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:18:04 +0000

Being the goalie doesn’t mean you just stand there and be prepared to get the ball. There is so much more to it!

First we must make sure the goal is stable.

Next look around. Is anyone looking???

Check out the net. Try the “hiding” goalie pose.

Lament that the ball isn’t coming near you.

Act bored.

Check out the goal again.

Coach Eddie talking to Alex because when he wasn’t being the goalie, he was dribbling the ball in the wrong direction!!

Evening Soccer Game

marineswife — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:50:49 +0000

Roy and I were taking turns snapping shots of Samantha. We couldn’t decide what setting to use. If we used the sport setting, the pictures weren’t so blurry, but they were grainy. If we used the flash, that didn’t really do anything. Just using the lights from the soccer field, left the pictures with the weird color. Using a different setting (aperture?) caused more movement streaks. We just kept playing around with the settings. I need to figure out what is best to use at night, with limited light, when people are moving fast. LOL

Samantha loves playing soccer. The level of skills on her team ranges from a newbie to a super star. She is somewhere in the middle and getting better every week. We love watching the games. The most recent one was tied and we went into a 5 minute overtime. When our team scored, the yells of the parents and the kids, was so exciting! Even my little ones were jumping up and down. Their games move fast! (These are all 10 and 11 year olds..boys and girls.)

She got to be a Captain that night.

A fan – it was cold that night!

She stands with her hands on her hips a lot.

This was a great throw in!

Getting tired.

Oh look. Hands on hips again.

Matthew’s First Soccer Game

marineswife — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:04:20 +0000

I didn’t get very many good pictures. In this age group they have certain times that they switch out players. The whistle is blown and the coaches have a couple minutes to make changes. Each player is supposed to play at least 1/2 of the game. I think they switch about each quarter. I’ll pay more attention next time. I do think that’s right.

So first Matthew was out. Then he was goalie and the ball never came to their end during that time! Next he was defense and I did get a couple shots of that. And then last he was offense and he was getting some action then. However, it was at the end and the 3 youngest were antsy and I was spending more time keeping them in line then watching the game. I’ll take more pictures this week.

And you’ll notice the dirt. Our field is on a baseball field and part of the area is dirt. Ick. We sat on the wrong side! First the sun shifted and was in my eyes and then the little ones kept playing in the dirt. This week I’ll be on the other side! In the shade and no where near the dirt!

Notice the action with the ball on this one!

Samantha’s First Game of the Season

marineswife — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:32:39 +0000

There will be a lot of soccer pictures being shared over the next few weeks. Tuesday night was Samantha’s first game of the season. Her team name is Heat and we love to shout things like “Bring on the Heat!” and “Feel the Heat!” and “Can you handle the Heat???” Love the team name! Samantha is #10, she was one of the first to pick a jersey, and she says she picked the #10 because that is how old she is.

The referee talking to the team about the rules.

The fans.

The first half Samantha played defense. I didn’t get as many shots of her as they were on the other end of the field from where we were sitting. At half time I think the score was 3 to 3. Pretty well matched. Both teams were doing well in all areas.

The second half Samantha played halfback and then forward. As much as she loves playing defense she said she thinks she likes forward better now. More action.

In the second half they didn’t score again and the other team scored 3 more times. The kids were so disappointed! Here are some shots of them attempting to score and missing. Samantha was getting really frustrated!