End of Soccer Spring 2023 (Summer)

Saturday was the final game! It hadn't rained out and it was HOT!

Soccer is definitely ending at the right time. We haven't hit full summer temperatures, but the humidity is there!

I think I pissed off the ref to start the game. I set up camp where I've set up camp every other week and he told me I was in the wrong place. I was honestly confused and said so. He gave me this long suffering look and said coaches and players had to be on the other side of the field. I politely mentioned that it was the first I'd heard of it all year and he acted like the world was against him. "Then all the previous referees at your games have been wrong!"

I quickly had the players gather their gear and we switched sides, but either the ref was salty by nature or aggrieved we hadn't known the protocol (possibly both!). Next, he said Shane's black shirt was too close to the rest of the team's, so I threw my coach's shirt on him.

It was a tense game. We shot non-stop and had majority possession, but the other team had a giant in goal for the 1st half. He was an absolute wall. We had three or four shots on goal for every one of theirs, but the same number of goals went in for both teams.  

It was tense for me, too, because I had to manage subs! For once, we had a full team and enough players to sub back and forth! Even when the game was tense, I made a point of keeping the worse players rotating in. I wanted to win, but I didn't want to sideline anyone either. The point of rec league was to go out and play! 

It ended in a time and I was fine with that. A tie wasn't a win, but it wasn't a loss, either. We'd played well! I was proud and said we'd outplayed them all game even if nothing broke in our favor.

I don't have any pictures of the actual game, because I was into it! A parent took a picture of the team after the game and she shared it.

Everyone in that picture played at some point (Thanks for volunteering that one week, Brian!).

We all went to Chic-Fil-A afterward! I'd made the executive decision as Head Coach and emailed everyone before the game to avoid confusion. I had Ward use my phone to arrange for his parents to pick him up there and he drove over with Shane and I.

Francisco continued his super generous streak and bought everyone's meals! He wanted to buy me something, too, but I told him I was saving my calories for Chipotle (I figured I'd earned a burrito for the season!).

Francisco had bought medals for all the kids, too.  

I even got a card they passed a card around during warm-ups. One Sam's parents gave some Dick's Sporting Good cards last week (I gave mine to Francisco since he was always buying gear...and he might have given it to Fabian knowing him). I got a Bodo's gift card this week from the other Sam's parents.

The kids ate, talked, and played on cell phones. Shane borrowed mine and I even let him put Roblox on it for the special occasion.

Despite the doubt at the beginning, I'm glad that I was allowed to be a coach this year. It was worth all of the effort. I'm even more glad that it's done!

I got my burrito after we all said our goodbyes and the party ended. From there it was home for a quiet night. I took the dogs out to let them run and process through the day.

I was suspicious when Shane came out to see me later. He normally stays inside. He was walking with an arm behind his back, as well...

I wasn't born yesterday! I booked it and Shane couldn't catch up!

I laughed and took a couple of pictures as we ran. The babies joined in the fun. 

Shane's got to do some growing and some exercising to catch up with his old man! If he doesn't want to do that, he needs to get smarter about the approach to not tip me off! Haha!