WEGO Challenge Peng in Real Time

[Joe Shaw]

Originally posted by Michael Emrys:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Abbott:

..and who is this "we" you are always referring to? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

No, but he has bats in his belfry.

Michael </font>

[stikkypixie]

Damn the Swedes, you have to be a bloody millionaire to get drunk.

[Bigduke6]

Man does it smell in here! Don't you cess poolers ever wash? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Dalem, hang in there, life definately sucks at the moment, but your family needs you now more than ever. Take care of them, they need their Dad to be strong.

Originally posted by dalem:

Hey all. I know I owe some turns, but a little Real Life has crept in. For those that don't know already, my dad died suddenly last Friday. I spent a few days in Massachusets with my family taking care of business etc.

I don't mean to bum anybody out, I'm fine, my family will get through it, I'm back home and I'll sort through email soon.

-dale

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

for lowlife PRETENDERS like yourself.

Joe

LOL! Are you still upset because I thought Sherlock Holmes was a housing project in Biloxi?

[Nidan1]

dalem My condolences to you and your family.

[Joe Shaw]

Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

for lowlife PRETENDERS like yourself.

Joe

LOL! Are you still upset because I thought Sherlock Holmes was a housing project in Biloxi? </font>

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

for lowlife PRETENDERS like yourself.

Joe

LOL! Are you still upset because I thought Sherlock Holmes was a housing project in Biloxi? </font>

[Joe Shaw]

Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

for lowlife PRETENDERS like yourself.

Joe

LOL! Are you still upset because I thought Sherlock Holmes was a housing project in Biloxi? </font>

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Abbott:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

for lowlife PRETENDERS like yourself.

Joe

LOL! Are you still upset because I thought Sherlock Holmes was a housing project in Biloxi? </font>

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

I BLAME SEANACHAI!

Now you be nice to Seanachai. He has been my tool. Even if he is chipped and worn around the edges and definitely getting dull. In the past, he accomplished my will. More or less.

Michael

[bauhaus]

Originally posted by Michael Emrys:

I BLAME SEANACHAI! Now you be nice to Seanachai. He has been my tool.

Umm, wow! Do you really expect me to let the "Seanachai is my tool" comment go? Na, must.....let.....go.....Let me beat you all to it.....Sit down bauhaus!

[Boo Radley]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

Indeed sir? Then what do you make of THIS?

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Would be plagarist gets duped

By GAWD sir when the Snarling Marmot calls it PLAGARIST ... PLAGARIST IT IS!

</font>

[MrPeng]

OK

Well, the soccer thing is in full swing, only this year I am coaching a U-12 and a U-14 team. The Young One being on the former, and the twins on the latter. I made the foolish decision to also be on the Rec league Board as well, which is how I ended up with two teams. We were short a coach in the U-14 league and that was that.

I run both practices at the same time, one of the moms for one of the U-14 girls helps with both teams, and I have a promise from one of the dads to help. One bailed on me already, I guess he didn't like it when I called him a "fat arsed swab" and "tubby" I started throwing a ball at him and asking "you gonna cry now?" No, wait, that was the Great santini...

er, yes. The U-14 is Co-Ed! and it took two practices and a really horrible first game loss to get the boys to start passing to the girls. Funny thing that - if you exclude half the bloomin team how the other side seems to trample you. They got the idea this saturday, while if the girls didn't exactly get any goals (it was an 8-2 rout with 3 of the boys scoring two each and two others putting one in each), the boys did pass them the ball. My Nat made a pretty little flick on to Dillan in the penalty area from which he scored. One of the larger boys actually listend and passed to Nat when she hollered "I'M OPEN!" He passed, she directed it to Dillan and he one-touched into the goal from about 12 yards out. Nat had kind of a thing for Dillan a couple of years ago... but that's ancient history and nothing to do with the soccer.

It's a strange age the U-14 crowd. In many ways. I have NO IDEA what team is going to show up to practice or to the game. Our first practice I thought, "yeesh! tween boys are icky!" but then the second practice they seemed normal. Then our first game a bunch of zombies showed up and sort of staggered around the field making funny noises and not understanding how to put a foot in front of the other, let alone dribble a ball. Then the next game a fired up bunch of go-getters is there psyched up for a goal fest.

Also U-14 has a wide range of sizes and abilities. One of the bigger boys must be about 5'8" and weighs in at 140 pounds. My Nat is about 4 foot nothing and weighs 68. She still plows right into the game though, and blocked a blistering shot from about 15 yards out with her thigh (So Madge didn't have to!) and didn't falter or even slow down, just chased after the rebound. It was one of those things that was so visible and so loud that all the parents watching sort of gasp and go quiet. She just had a big smile on her face. After the game she was saying how much it stung, and she was glad it's still warm out. "It only hurts for a minute, dad!" There is another little girl, Gina, who if possible seems to be smaller than Nat, who can't seem to kick more than a few yards - even with a running start - and a boy, Kyle, who scored from about 35 yards out with a soaring thing that arched over the goalie and just under the crossbar.

Madge acquited herself rather well in goal, making a couple of very good saves in the 3rd quarter, when the other team managed to put together a few good passes and get some balls toward the net. She had a miss-cue on a punt out of the area, but fortunately it went right to a teammate who got it down field. She stopped a rocket shot that was straight at her - I was sure she wouldn't be able to hold it, but hold it she did. She also put a foot out to direct a squibbed shot past the net and out for a corner. She had a couple of really fine punts out of the area too. When she doesn't rush and picks a target she can get the thing beyond midfield in the air. That's another thing about U-14. It is the first age group that plays on regulation sized feilds with 11 person sides. It is finally real soccer. Sometimes we even get an assistant ref for one of the lines.

So some of the fun in coaching is that we aren't just doing "here's how to kick a soccer ball." We did a "how to catch someone off-sides by moving your back four up two paces all at the same time" drill, which while at the time seemed to be a bit of a muddle, also seemd to sink in a bit. The back four were behaving more as a unit, talking to each other, covering the wings and passing to each other to get out of trouble. We did "layoff man" drills - they are starting to understand that a pass backward - while a tactical move backward - can be a strategic move forward. There's a bit less of jamming the ball through with repeated kicks and a bit more "I'm open!" and "Look at Brandon!" and "Stay outside!" from teammates - and they listen to each other sometimes too.

It is a lot of fun to watch as they are playing real soccer now. The individual skills of some of the kids is great to watch too. Three years ago my Madge would have let some of the harder balls just go by with barely a swipe at them. - I think catching softball has helped with her confidence a bit - blocking all that crap in the dirt, and bouncing up from a crouch to get the wild high ones the pitchers throw at her, taking foul balls of the mask, the chest, the knee, the foot, getting trampled blocking the plate - have made goal keeping a bit less daunting, a bit less of an excuse not to have to run, and a bit more fun. She is catching up to Nat in the bravery department.

One of the boys - Ryan - has such great foot work for a 13 year old kid it was really fun to watch. You can tell he just loves the game. He's the type of kid that goes home after the game and instead of plunking down in front of the TV or X-box takes his ball outside and juggles for 20 minutes. My Nat has been practicing too. She said the flick was deliberate and not a lucky miscue and it sure looked that way. She got an idea for another move she tried when we were watching some EPL, and someone did a little chip shot pass to himself over a defender's leg. Nat was working on it for a couple of weeks and tried it in the game. She got it over the kid's leg, but he was faster to the ball than she was. Maybe next time.

The U-12s are fun too. Smaller field, all girls, and 7 a side. Celeste is 7 inches taller than she was last fall, but still just about the shrimpiest kid on the field She's the same height as Nat, but about 10 pounds lighter. She is sneaky, and big on ball control, if a bit leery of mixing it up with the bigger girls. Unlike Nat you won't find her in a scrum or colliding with a kid nearly twice her size in a battle for the ball, but you will find her faking some poor kid out of her pony tail with a move or two and getting the ball into the box for a team-mate, or getting a shot off herself. Her bony little legs don't have enough muscle for an overpowering shot, but what she lacks in power she makes up for in stealth. She always seems to end up with the ball about 10 feet from goal. Now if we could work on her accurracy!

She had about a dozen shots on goal in both of her games, and only came up with 2 in game one and 1 goal in game two. The post is not her friend. The goal in game two was a left footed shot from about 12 yards out - she took a pass from the other winger at about midway between mid field and the box, faked inside and went outside around the last defender, dribbled a couple more paces and just got the shot off as a defender from the other side came barrelling back. It was a pretty little shot going from left to right and snuck in at the bottom right corner. She made eyes at me as she was running back for kickoff and patted her left leg like "Left footed, eh? huh? lefty, eh?". She also had a brilliant move down in the right corner - she had taken the ball far down there trying to evade the defense. They were both tearing down field and as they got to the end line Celeste just stopped the ball with her left and the girl chasing went zipping past. Celeste turned and booted the ball toward the middle, and her mate Sarah let fly. The poor goalie had no chance. Sarah is about twice as tall as Celeste and plays competitive soccer. She's got a HUGE kick on her. When she's in goal I have to remind her to punt "GENTLY!" or the ball is off the other side.

My U-12s are 2 and 0, and that is without Emily, who was on my U-12 last year, and on my winter league indoor team too. She's another one of those kids with good instincts, a great attitude about the game and who loves to go home and kick a ball around. When She's at midfield we will be unstoppable. She has a throw-in that can damn near go the width of the smaller U-12 field, a heck of a foot (when she doesn't miss! Our Emily has a tendancy to over kick.) and is almost indefatigable - she doesn't get tired easy either.

I have a couple of girls who are newer to the game, one who is pretty much clueless at this point, but she plays with such vigor that what she lacks in the finer points she makes up for in hell bent "get the ball for coach!" She is fearless in goal: diving, punching the balls she can't catch, yelling to her mates "MY BALL!" and generally taking control of the box. She loves to tell me about what she did between halves, and is not shy about saying "what exactly is it you want me to do?" when, being new to the game, she doesn't know what I'm talking about.

I was worried that two teams would be too much for me. Now I wish we practiced more than once a week. They seem to be not only learning new stuff, but having fun too. I can be a dense old bastard sometimes, but I'm almost certain that they are having as much fun as I am. At least most of them are. I'm sure there are a couple who think my goofy antics and "It only hurts for a minute" speeches are stupid and unbecoming. Tough Noogies. I'm the bleedin coach, ain't I? Over half the kids (at least their parents) from last year requested to be on my team this year too, so that says something. Not sure what - "we worried about Father Tim down at Our Lady of Perpetual Grief, Sorrow, Pain, Heartache and UTIs, but you seem ok compared to him," maybe.

Well, if any of you made it through this, you are dumber than I thought, or more of a masochist than your profile indicated. Sorry to bore you with tales of the Beautiful Game. It is one of the few things that makes life worth living.

[Michael Emrys]

Do you really think we care?

Michael

[stoat]

I admire you for picking up two teams. Youth leagues are always short coaches, not to mention people with any kind of experience or knowledge, and the few individuals that stick with it year after year are probably worthy of canonization.

Originally posted by MrPeng:

The U-12s are fun too. Smaller field, all girls, and 7 a side.

I think policies like this are the absolute worst thing you can do to the U-12 girls. Someone had the great idea to segregate the girls from the boys, and then water down the female side of the game with smaller teams and/or fields. Then they reintroduce the girls to the boys at a time when the guys are beginning to bulk up and are coming into their own. It puts the girls at a serious initial disadvantage at the U-14 level, and unfortunately many can't make up the difference, or give up trying. Split them up permanently from the U-10 level, or don't do it at all.

With that off my chest, I'd just like to say that things are well from the official's viewpoint of the game. There are four refs with experience in the local league, all under 20, and I'm the only one not playing high school golf, running cross country, or attending college. It makes for 6 or 7 game days, most by myself, and around 10 hours in the sun. But it's good for my cholesterol, and I am raking in the dough. The league will be seriously screwed next year when 4 of the five referees will be attending college, and the other will have only 2 years of experience.

[MrPeng]

Originally posted by Michael Emrys:

Do you really think we care?

Michael

Nope.

[MrPeng]

Originally posted by stoat:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by MrPeng:

The U-12s are fun too. Smaller field, all girls, and 7 a side.

I think policies like this are the absolute worst thing you can do to the U-12 girls. Someone had the great idea to segregate the girls from the boys, and then water down the female side of the game with smaller teams and/or fields. Then they reintroduce the girls to the boys at a time when the guys are beginning to bulk up and are coming into their own. It puts the girls at a serious initial disadvantage at the U-14 level, and unfortunately many can't make up the difference, or give up trying. Split them up permanently from the U-10 level, or don't do it at all.

With that off my chest, I'd just like to say that things are well from the official's viewpoint of the game. There are four refs with experience in the local league, all under 20, and I'm the only one not playing high school golf, running cross country, or attending college. It makes for 6 or 7 game days, most by myself, and around 10 hours in the sun. But it's good for my cholesterol, and I am raking in the dough. The league will be seriously screwed next year when 4 of the five referees will be attending college, and the other will have only 2 years of experience.

</font>

[stoat]

Originally posted by MrPeng:

Not sure why we lose so many kids at the U-14 level. We lose some to the middle school team which is co-ed, but I can't imagine that's more than a team or two of kids. We lose some to the travel league then too. It seems to be a time when kids start to either take it more seriously and get competitive, or blow it off entirely. Whether that's because the girls know they are going to be stuck with a pack of lumbering behemoths at U-14 or they have other things going on, I know not why.

And good refs at that age... there is a HUGE difference between who they let ref a U-14 or a U-12. The U-12 kids are still somewhat overwhelmed by the whole thing, although ours did blow his whistle once and call a penalty kick for a fairly blatant trip. The U-14 ref didn't have much to call, but he got a couple of off-sides calls right, and called a penalty kick for a hand ball - a really blatant one that in another league might have been given a yellow card.

The twins are old enough now to start reffing U-6 and U-8 games. They need to go to the training. I think they will do well. They are very fair-minded and both have a really good grasp of the game. Plus they aren't likely to drift off mid game and not see who kicked the ball out of bounds.

You lose more and more with age as they become disinterested, discover marijuana, or move on to playing football. In Seneca the high school doesn't have a soccer team, and most of the guys play fall baseball or football and the girls softball in the years before entering high school. I'm on a club team that is in its last year because there is no one moving up to take the place of the players we lose to graduation. The lack of a high school team kills the sport for almost everyone, and seriously hurts the futures of athletes that deserve slots on college teams.

Here, the experienced refs get the U-12 and U-14 games, while the new refs get the U-8 and U-10 matches. However, for the past two years it has just been myself and a friend doing most of the work, while a few others help out when they can. There are no adults in the system, and the only new ref we've had in the past two years we told not to come back, because he was that bad. We do have a different style in Seneca than you will find in most other local towns. We tend to let most things go, as long as no one gains an unfair advantage or does something blatant or flagrant. It really irritates the fans of visiting teams that we don't call much, but we don't call much either way. Let the kids play, says I.

Referee is a great job for a youngin', and it increases your knowledge of the game, if nothing else. I'm also making more money for my work than I probably should be, given the premium on trained labor.

What kind of training would your daughters be subjected to? I've only ever done the 6 hour SAY course, though I could have done the two day USSF bit several time if I had wanted.

[Joe Shaw]

I had a co-ed team when I was coaching, U8s I think, though it might have been U10s. My son was on left wing and Bree was on the right wing ... hell of a one two punch.

Just one word of advice Peng, as tempting as it may be, and it is, don't do too much or YOU'LL burn out. I speak from the experience of trying to coach, referee and play soccer at the same time. It just got to be too much.

Joe

[**YK2**]

Condolences to you and your family Dalem...

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Joe Shaw:

I speak from the experience of trying to coach, referee and play soccer at the same time.

Joe

Just like Larry, Curly and Moe.

[Boo Radley]

And remember men, it's not important whether you win or lose, because after all, it's only soccer.

(Do they even keep score in that game?)

Peng, you owe me a turn. Same for you, Stoat. And Seananchai, Leeeeeeeo, Nidan, Lars and Shandorf.

If I've forgotten anyone, please forgive me, you all sort of run together in my head. probably due to your lack of personalities.

[ng cavscout]

Boo, you forgot me, you always forget me. Even though we aren't playing a game, you still forget me.

You never have a kind word or a soft touch (not counting your soft head) for a fellow member of the MBT, and you are always mean and hateful.

Send me a setup. AK, BB, BO, or SF, your choice.

[MrPeng]

stoat, I forgot about the dope smoking... that sort of killed soccer for me when I was in HS.

Not sure what the ref training is like - the board chair has some course he either teaches or has to arrange. So far I'm a bit at sea with the whole board thing. It is kind of like two old guys running the show and they don't seem real big on information sharing. Plus they are somewhat technologically challenged, so things I would expect to be automated, or at least electronic in this day and age get handed out in hard copy at meetings and never a follow-up with an email. I find myself writing things down on paper *shudder*

There is a regional web site that has a fully automated league sign up system that we could join that would take a huge burden off the two old guys running the show, but they are loathe to let go of control it seems, so we will work with paper and pencil and have to ask parents for email addresses at practice and cope with all the attendant tard that entails.

I was paired with one of the U-14 comissioners who was going to show me the ropes - what ropes? I don't see any ropes. There are ropes around here? I've had one conversation with him that was more about coaching than commissionering... There's no handbook, flier, cheat sheet or crib notes explaining what commissioners are actually supposed to do. I'm going to suggest maybe I could make one at our next meeting. that way people will have to answer my questions and give me information. There's no consistency, no regularity, NO GODDAM ORDER!!!

Ahem. Yeah. Soccer is fun.

Turns out soon. For faster service, resend the last thing you sent. I probably have the file. I didn't lose them in the last disaster, but I DID lose my address book, which was pretty painful.

[Boo Radley]

Originally posted by NG cavscout:

Boo, you forgot me, you always forget me. Even though we aren't playing a game, you still forget me.

You never have a kind word or a soft touch (not counting your soft head) for a fellow member of the MBT, and you are always mean and hateful.

Send me a setup. AK, BB, BO, or SF, your choice.

You call that a challenge?

Oh, wait... I see. You're of the House of Rune! That's right, I'd forgotten that the traditional Runic challenge is to slap your opponent with the lace doily you've been tatting, while you were gently dabbing at your lipstick covered mouth, removing the crumpet crumbs from your afternoon tea, where you simpered along with the rest of the ladies, carefully adjusting your crinolines, lest they become soiled by your injudicious flouncing around.

But I need a little something more, Beulah!

Why don't you try filling your purse with a bunch of those Harlequin Romance novels you've been keeping, in the vain attempt to unstick their pages from your moments of literary excitement, and try hitting me with that?

Damn, that felt good!