This was Sydney's first season playing Academy soccer, and it has opened our eyes to a whole new world. Some of the teams she has faced are incredible. You can tell, in some cases, that there have been years and years of training at that higher level. Even several of Sydney's own teammates have been in the program since the age of 6, and now they are 10/11 and have excellent ball handling/footwork skills. Sydney is just a strong soccer player, but doesn't have a lot of the fine, technical kinds of skills.
After making the team in January, she played in her first tournament for the premier team in mid-February. There were 6 new girls joining an existing team, and they hadn't really gotten a chance to know each other. Another problem was that their premier team (kind of like a "B" team) was participating in an elite tournament. There are many premier tournaments out there, but our soccer program was hosting this tournament so they added the premier team in. We were killed in every game. Their program has an elite team as well, which was coached by the same coach as the premier team, and they did better than the premier team, but still struggled against some of these other programs.
Fast forward a couple of months- after lots and lots of practices, many games played in other areas (Alpharetta, Tucker, Acworth, Roswell, Rome) as well as at home, the premier team finally won a game! It was against a team out of Milton, and Sydney got a goal in this game! (She's been playing mid-field, where you don't usually get an opportunity to score). They went on to win a few more games.
Fast forward again- the teams were beginning to prep for the end-of-season tournaments in May. The premier team was going to play in Chattanooga, while the elite team was going to play in two back-to-back weekend tournaments in Stockbridge. (They would be participating in tournaments at their specific levels). The coach, as well as 2 other guys from the program, were finalizing the rosters. They moved three girls down from elite to premier, and moved three girls up from premier to elite... and Sydney was one of them! They wanted the girls to specifically practice in those groups for a few weeks before the tournaments to get used to plays, communication, etc. (really, things that should've been going on all year, but with the same coach coaching both teams, the girls almost always practiced all together).
Both premier and elite teams were so much more successful after this. The premier team rocked out their tournament, coming in 2nd place. The elite team came in 3rd in theirs, but played 3 games and only gave up 4 goals in total (one of the teams they played, who ended up winning the whole tournament, beat them 12-1 in the February tournament. This time, they only beat us 1-0!) So, not a win, but a great deal of growth and improvement, which is awesome to see.
Their games are really exciting to watch. These girls are good. Stephen made a good point- he was like, Sydney and her team are playing the very best of the best from all these different areas. We can't be too hard on them if they can't always win. (SOME parents don't have that attitude, but what can you do?... ;)
Sydney has made some wonderful friends in these few months, and as an added bonus, we have as well!
Here are a few pictures from this Spring season.
The first tournament in February at Lakepoint. This is probably after her team got killed. Sydney cried the whole way home! (Izzy came to see her play!)
Game in Acworth.
Game in Tucker.
After a game, playing a team from Conyers.
Staying dry in Stockbridge.
Sydney and Kaitlyn.
Shots taken by one of the dads.
She participated in tryouts last week (for the next full year). The coaching is going to be different this year... the elite team will be smaller than normal and will have one coach (who is from Scotland... I automatically believe anything he says about soccer because of his accent ;); and a little bigger premier team where they can play more and work on their skills, and play for elite if they need someone. I was honestly prepping Sydney for being on premier, which would have been totally fine- but since she'd been on elite the last month or so, I didn't want her to feel like she failed. (There are 8 or 9 girls who have been on elite for years and are a pretty big guarantee to be on it). There were going to be 12 elite girls and 16 premier girls.
The day after the three-day tryouts ended, we got an email... she made elite! I was so proud! It's a much more intense team... the competition, the other players, the other parents... so I'm hoping it'll be a good year. I trust that the coaches put her where she should be, so here we go...
