CS Making One of Several Great Runs Into the BoxThis past Sunday was one of the Club's four home Sundays on the MAPLE calendar. MAPLE scheduled two Sundays in September as home dates for Granite FC and this past Sunday was a great day for everyone involved. The weather was superb, the atmosphere with the families, players and coaches coming , going and watching each other play was fun and the soccer was good. The day highlighted a few great things worth noting.
First, one of the reasons the day was so much fun is that the soccer was concentrated around four hours on one afternoon. MAPLE schedules play only for Sunday afternoons and each Club must be able to make its field available for four or so home dates in which it will be hosting a few games back to back. MAPLE's scheduling policy is great and is in real contrast to the arbitrary and unpredictable nature of scheduling as conceived by our friends in the Granite State Youth Soccer League. In MAPLE, you know your team will have one game a week on Sunday afternoon. The predictability in scheduling allows families to plan activities other than soccer -- there's a radical concept! Granite State, on the other hand, thinks nothing of putting a team into two games on one weekend and then none on the following weekend. Its hard to plan around such a schedule and it disrupts the progression in player development through the season.
MAPLE's scheduling also allows clubs to generate a club festival atmosphere around the dates in which it hosts home games. Three and four different teams' games come together on one afternoon. People come and go seeing coaches, club officers and friends. The kids and the parents inevitably take in pieces of the game before and after them. The club can run a concession and people linger for refreshments and a rolling picnic develops. All of this is built around the game and cements what we hope is a love for the game and an identity with other players in the club.
Second, when MAPLE home Sundays fall in September the weather is almost always beautiful. September in New Hampshire is marked by pleasant temperatures and sunny dry weather. This past Sunday was no exception. Why not stay and have a drink and a snack and talk with one or two of the coaches or some of the other kids and their parents? By all means, sit in the sun and watch a great match with your youngest and let them see how the older kids play the game.
Third, our home field is only one pitch and its fairly confined in its dimensions beyond the field itself. In a lot of ways, the configuration of the facility makes the atmosphere more intimate and festive. When parents like the Sherburne's set up as nice a concession as they have the last two MAPLE Sundays, it reinforces the atmosphere. People with the club and even the opposing teams mingle, talk and enjoy the soccer in way that is lost at bigger or more spread out venues.
And oh yeah, lets not forget the fourth and most important reason, you get to see a lot of great soccer development on display. It was a blast to watch our U-10 group now four weeks into their development take it to North Shore United in 3 goal bonanza in the first half. They are a fantastic group of little athletes. They already show the beginnings of a real understanding for the game. Best of all its great to see the amazing fun they have and the pleasure they take in everything they do. Its good for our U-11s, U-12s and U-14s to see this. It reminds them of what drew them to the game and to the more intensive level of training and play at the Club. It also makes the parents wistful for the days when their Suzy or Jessie was nine years old and starting in the game.
Our two U-12 teams also played this past Sunday. Ryan's Wanderers played well, dominating possession but struggling a bit in the final third. The possession ultimately paid off with a nice strike by TG -- a player who always has a nose for the goal and an ability to hit the ball well. In the end, this was enough to see off Seacoast United's white team -- 1-0.
Len's Wanderers played the Scorpions Elite U-12s and, once again played toe to toe, for 50 minutes in a 0-0 tie. Unlike in past games, however, the girls broke the Scorpions down and threatened in the final 18. CS was a ball of fire making strong runs forward. Unfortunately, she often found herself isolated in the box with no option but to shoot when a cross or a cut back pass would have yielded more. Ultimately, the Scorpions broke us down and scored two late goals. One on a scrum in front of the net that I really could not see and the other on a direct kick from the right edge of the penalty box. It sounds a little shopworn but its nevertheless true, the girls played well and the performance suggests that results are just around the corner.
Second, when MAPLE home Sundays fall in September the weather is almost always beautiful. September in New Hampshire is marked by pleasant temperatures and sunny dry weather. This past Sunday was no exception. Why not stay and have a drink and a snack and talk with one or two of the coaches or some of the other kids and their parents? By all means, sit in the sun and watch a great match with your youngest and let them see how the older kids play the game.
Third, our home field is only one pitch and its fairly confined in its dimensions beyond the field itself. In a lot of ways, the configuration of the facility makes the atmosphere more intimate and festive. When parents like the Sherburne's set up as nice a concession as they have the last two MAPLE Sundays, it reinforces the atmosphere. People with the club and even the opposing teams mingle, talk and enjoy the soccer in way that is lost at bigger or more spread out venues.
And oh yeah, lets not forget the fourth and most important reason, you get to see a lot of great soccer development on display. It was a blast to watch our U-10 group now four weeks into their development take it to North Shore United in 3 goal bonanza in the first half. They are a fantastic group of little athletes. They already show the beginnings of a real understanding for the game. Best of all its great to see the amazing fun they have and the pleasure they take in everything they do. Its good for our U-11s, U-12s and U-14s to see this. It reminds them of what drew them to the game and to the more intensive level of training and play at the Club. It also makes the parents wistful for the days when their Suzy or Jessie was nine years old and starting in the game.
Our two U-12 teams also played this past Sunday. Ryan's Wanderers played well, dominating possession but struggling a bit in the final third. The possession ultimately paid off with a nice strike by TG -- a player who always has a nose for the goal and an ability to hit the ball well. In the end, this was enough to see off Seacoast United's white team -- 1-0.
Len's Wanderers played the Scorpions Elite U-12s and, once again played toe to toe, for 50 minutes in a 0-0 tie. Unlike in past games, however, the girls broke the Scorpions down and threatened in the final 18. CS was a ball of fire making strong runs forward. Unfortunately, she often found herself isolated in the box with no option but to shoot when a cross or a cut back pass would have yielded more. Ultimately, the Scorpions broke us down and scored two late goals. One on a scrum in front of the net that I really could not see and the other on a direct kick from the right edge of the penalty box. It sounds a little shopworn but its nevertheless true, the girls played well and the performance suggests that results are just around the corner.
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