Alby Showing Her Battling Qualities 
Jo Getting Forward Nicely
Numbers Forward!!!!!
I am excited for the start of what is the most important phase of our year together -- the spring season. The most important soccer we play each season begins now and will end, hopefully, in nice State Cup and Paul Irwin Cup runs. I'm happy to say, the hard knocking we took last Fall combined with the work we've done this winter seems to have us well poised for those runs.
Our Fall season, simply by looking at results, cannot be considered a success. It was our first adventure into the top division of the MAPLE league. We did not let ourselves down and showed a lot of heart and determination in games that were real battles against some of the best teams New England has to offer. The girls always competed and were never out of even the toughest games. Technically we were behind a couple of the best teams in the division, but the real truth is that our physical size played the biggest part in getting on the wrong side of the score sheet. What the girls learned, however, was that they could find ways to cope with the sheer power of the best U-12 sides.
4 months on and going into our Spring season, the technical ability of the team as a whole has improved greatly. Speed of play has seen dramatic improvement and the movement of the ball is creating havoc for the teams we have played outdoors in the past few weeks. We dominated quite good sides in our 1-1 draws with Puma FC and Explosion FC not to mention the nice 3-1 win over Seacoast at the Western United Friendlies. Physically we are still not as big as the other teams, but the girls have developed such a winning mentality that they "Want It". We have come into the Spring season with a lot of confidence individually and as a team, showing a lot of vision and creativity, with and without the ball.
We have a number of big games this season and we will have our share of challenges to come. We can surely expect a much more cohesive and dangerous effort from Seacoast in May. You can never predict results but I am optimistic that we will see the best soccer yet out of this remarkable group of footballers.
