JCsman
04-15-2009, 08:55 PM
OK, I know most of the members don't give a rip about non-moto sports. But I felt compelled to give a brief (OK, not so brief) post on my son John.
His sophomore year in high school a couple of his buddies asked him to go out for the soccer team. John had only played soccer one time in a kid's (11-12 year-old) church league. But he thought it might be fun to try.
He made the team and became the Junior Varsity goalie. And, for the first time in his life, a sport wasn't just a fun thing to do with his friends. He rapidly grew to love the game. He works all the time to learn and get better. And we found he had the heart of a coach, really enjoying helping others improve.
His Junior year he was again Junior Varsity goalie (and JV defensive player of the year) and backup to the Varsity goalie, a senior. He was starter for a few Varsity games too.
Then some other friends begged him to try out with them for a club level team in the area, the River City Rapids in the under 19 group. He split goalie duties with a kid named Ben at first. Ben's dad is the coach of the local university team and the coaching coordinator for the club. Ben has played all his life under a pro coach and was starting goalie for the Rapids for the past year. After about three games, John started getting more playing time than Ben. Soon John became the starting goalie.
Their club team did well including winning a tournament over a previously unbeaten team from the neighboring state of Georgia. (Frankly virtually every loss was due to scores when Ben was in the net.)
Those kids were good. John had defenders that knew what they were doing, they played together and it showed. John began to be approached by some college coaches.
So, here comes John's senior High School season. He's captain of the defense and. of course, varsity goalie. But the team had come apart. The fastest kid moved out of state. The best scorer and several other key players graduated. The best defender decided girls beat the heck out of soccer. Our best all-rounder died in a car wreck (lots of emotional trauma there as well). We had a broken collar bone, cracked sternum, a couple of knees and a bad back. Results, the team was AWFUL. Particularly the defense.
We began to joke in the stands about betting if the ball would be on the other teams side of the field for over 30 seconds at any consecutive period in the game. Pretty soon it was no joke. John was trapped in a shooting gallery, usually facing unopposed break aways, often two-on-one. And as soon as he blocked one, our team would lose the ball and back came the other team.
I know I'm biased. But John is good. Everyone that knows soccer tells me that as well. He's always described as the best or one of the two best on the team. He's also fearless, diving to catch the ball right off the foot of a striker.
But he faced incredible numbers of shots each game. And too many games and tournaments were scheduled too close together. In one awful 18 day period they played 14 games.
John is severely battered. Too many dives, too many hard shots to his finger tips. Too many times crashing into opposing players. Too many defeats. And the clear concept that the number of points scored against him would ruin any chance at college play for a decent team.*
He was hurt physically and mentally spent. He gets angry at himself for any mistakes and at how he was unable to help his teammates improve. And he's frustrated at the drop off in effort by the team as the losses mounted. He was as down as I've ever seen him last night (we lost 4-0). He began to say he must not be as good as he'd thought and hoped he was.
Lots of people have told him a good coach can see how the team operates and pick his play out of the mess. He could only focus on the points scored against him. I told him even those would be looked at in light of shots on goal.
So today, at our insistence, he asked his coach about his statistics. As expected the goals given up looked bad. But his eyes got wide when he looked at saves (shots blocked). The coach hasn't totaled the season numbers, but in a single game (in a tournament against the #2 team in the State) the coach recorded 65 blocked shots by John. If you know soccer, you'll think I mis-typed that. But that's the number, and I believe it. He also blocked over 50 in another game. That one, a regular season game is his official record.
So John looked up the State record....40 shots blocked in a single game. The season record is 355 saves. He's going to blow that one out of the water. Frankly we'd all rather he had records for LEAST goals scored on him and team wins. But, he looks to be state record holder in two categories for a long time.
Still a dismal team win-loss. But boy, oh boy are John's spirits restored.
* That issue is settled, he's going to the University of Alabama in Huntsville, accepted into the School of Engineering. The soccer roster is full, but the coach said he'd arrange a walk-on tryout for John and Paul (the best offensive player on our team). So, while he still hopes to play at the college level, education edged ahead of soccer (whew!).
His sophomore year in high school a couple of his buddies asked him to go out for the soccer team. John had only played soccer one time in a kid's (11-12 year-old) church league. But he thought it might be fun to try.
He made the team and became the Junior Varsity goalie. And, for the first time in his life, a sport wasn't just a fun thing to do with his friends. He rapidly grew to love the game. He works all the time to learn and get better. And we found he had the heart of a coach, really enjoying helping others improve.
His Junior year he was again Junior Varsity goalie (and JV defensive player of the year) and backup to the Varsity goalie, a senior. He was starter for a few Varsity games too.
Then some other friends begged him to try out with them for a club level team in the area, the River City Rapids in the under 19 group. He split goalie duties with a kid named Ben at first. Ben's dad is the coach of the local university team and the coaching coordinator for the club. Ben has played all his life under a pro coach and was starting goalie for the Rapids for the past year. After about three games, John started getting more playing time than Ben. Soon John became the starting goalie.
Their club team did well including winning a tournament over a previously unbeaten team from the neighboring state of Georgia. (Frankly virtually every loss was due to scores when Ben was in the net.)
Those kids were good. John had defenders that knew what they were doing, they played together and it showed. John began to be approached by some college coaches.
So, here comes John's senior High School season. He's captain of the defense and. of course, varsity goalie. But the team had come apart. The fastest kid moved out of state. The best scorer and several other key players graduated. The best defender decided girls beat the heck out of soccer. Our best all-rounder died in a car wreck (lots of emotional trauma there as well). We had a broken collar bone, cracked sternum, a couple of knees and a bad back. Results, the team was AWFUL. Particularly the defense.
We began to joke in the stands about betting if the ball would be on the other teams side of the field for over 30 seconds at any consecutive period in the game. Pretty soon it was no joke. John was trapped in a shooting gallery, usually facing unopposed break aways, often two-on-one. And as soon as he blocked one, our team would lose the ball and back came the other team.
I know I'm biased. But John is good. Everyone that knows soccer tells me that as well. He's always described as the best or one of the two best on the team. He's also fearless, diving to catch the ball right off the foot of a striker.
But he faced incredible numbers of shots each game. And too many games and tournaments were scheduled too close together. In one awful 18 day period they played 14 games.
John is severely battered. Too many dives, too many hard shots to his finger tips. Too many times crashing into opposing players. Too many defeats. And the clear concept that the number of points scored against him would ruin any chance at college play for a decent team.*
He was hurt physically and mentally spent. He gets angry at himself for any mistakes and at how he was unable to help his teammates improve. And he's frustrated at the drop off in effort by the team as the losses mounted. He was as down as I've ever seen him last night (we lost 4-0). He began to say he must not be as good as he'd thought and hoped he was.
Lots of people have told him a good coach can see how the team operates and pick his play out of the mess. He could only focus on the points scored against him. I told him even those would be looked at in light of shots on goal.
So today, at our insistence, he asked his coach about his statistics. As expected the goals given up looked bad. But his eyes got wide when he looked at saves (shots blocked). The coach hasn't totaled the season numbers, but in a single game (in a tournament against the #2 team in the State) the coach recorded 65 blocked shots by John. If you know soccer, you'll think I mis-typed that. But that's the number, and I believe it. He also blocked over 50 in another game. That one, a regular season game is his official record.
So John looked up the State record....40 shots blocked in a single game. The season record is 355 saves. He's going to blow that one out of the water. Frankly we'd all rather he had records for LEAST goals scored on him and team wins. But, he looks to be state record holder in two categories for a long time.
Still a dismal team win-loss. But boy, oh boy are John's spirits restored.
* That issue is settled, he's going to the University of Alabama in Huntsville, accepted into the School of Engineering. The soccer roster is full, but the coach said he'd arrange a walk-on tryout for John and Paul (the best offensive player on our team). So, while he still hopes to play at the college level, education edged ahead of soccer (whew!).