Spring soccer

The kids have both wrapped up another successful soccer season, Ethan with his U13/U14 travel team, and Lydia with her U9/U10 in-town league (which I coached along with another dad).  Ethan's team came in second in their division, which was a good showing. He did well this season; the coach played him for the most part as an "offensive" midfielder, so he was able to score a couple of goals and he racked up quite a few assists. [NB: sorry Ethan, no photos this post-- I've already posted too many sports-related photos of you on this blog].

Lydia's team went undefeated until the final game, which they lost by a whisker (oh well). Still, it was a fine season all around for them. I really enjoyed the coaching this spring-- the girls were a fun group, very cheerful and with great spirit & drive. Here are a few shots from Lydia's final game:

The soccer league at this level strongly encourages us to rotate the players from position to position, so everyone gets to play offense, defense, and keeper. Goalkeeper is not an especially popular position however, I have to say. Lydia played keeper in one half of this game; in the second shot here she doesn't look especially happy (I think the mosquitos may be getting to her):

Here she is playing defense:

All in all, a good season. I'm not sure if we will be able to reconstitute the same gang of players next year, since 4th grade is typically the point at which a significant number of the kids start moving to the travel leagues. We'll see how things go.