This past spring, Samantha made Santa Barbara Soccer Club's 07 White team. The summer was spent prepping for the upcoming season with team meetings, uniform measurements, mapping out a carpool schedule for games/practices, fundraising and writing checks (these sports are starting to add up!)
Thanks to all the friends/family who bought raffle tickets!!!!
Thatcher ready for U7 AYSO with a lot of his school buddies on his team and both Todd and Jethro coaching again.
I loved Thatcher's uniform this year — Santa Barbara AYSO has been lacking in the style department as far as uniforms the past several years.
I have no idea what is going on here, practicing his victory dance maybe?
Hair on point for his first game!
Unfortunately, this was the field we played on for all but one game of the season and this is the condition it was in (even more dirt by the end). It made for a lot of dust storms, slipping, sliding and injuries, thankfully minor.
Thatcher is in his element on the soccer field. I thought it was his favorite sport but I've now learned that his favorite sport is the one he is playing at the moment so we've already shifted to basketball.
Club Soccer. What can I say. We don't win a whole lot but that is not the goal of SBSC. They believe in equal playing time across all positions and player development. Most other clubs that we have played seem to have a different philosophy so their teams have girls in positions they excel at. Sam is most comfortable playing forward but as you can see in the photo above, she has to play goalie and it is not just for a few minutes. It can be a half hour and goals can be going past her right and left. It is hard to watch but our coach and other SBSC members have reassured us that this is the process all the kids go through and with our group of girls most likely sticking together each year throughout their Club careers, their team will begin to really take shape with well-rounded players.
I know it was a good move for Sam to go this route but there are times when I miss watching Sam playing AYSO where the pressure didn't seem as high and let's be honest, it's fun to watch her score goals and have a winning team. ;)
Thankfully we are with a great group of girls and families.
If we are in it for the long run, I am glad it is with these peeps!
Then there is Thatcher. Some of the boys on his team have played together for three years now. This year's team was very solid with solid coaching, right Todd?! ;) Thatcher is aggressive, fast and has no shortage of victory dances after he scores. Actually, all the boys on the Lightning Strikers were not shy with celebrating a goal or a win. They were a silly crew for sure!
The girls practice twice a week and Thatcher was FINALLY able to do more than just be along for the ride since he has been trying out for Educo which is the training program Samantha started doing when she was in first grade. He's pretty excited to be on the field at the same time as the girls.
Thankfully the travel schedule for club is not too bad. The farthest we have gone north is Arroyo Grande and south was Simi Valley but the majority of the games are at home at the local junior high. After all-star softball this past summer and all the travel that entailed, club soccer feels no different than AYSO so that's good!
Some of our away games have been near Grandma and Papa so Samantha gets extra cheerleaders.
Always fun playing against friends in AYSO.
We haven't known anyone on any of the opposing teams that Sam has played. Sam likes to be Team Captain for games because they get to go out and shake hands with the opposing team and do the coin flip.
Coach Todd doing his thing.
AYSO banner night at the Gaucho game. We were in charge of bringing our banner and guess what, we forgot it. Oh well.
It's nice to have friends who can get you access to the VIP section of Gaucho games.
Front row seats for all the action.
Free pizza, candy bars and hot chocolate for the kids (beer/wine for adults!)
The UCSB soccer players remembered Thatcher from the camp he attended with them over the summer.
Monkeying around at practice.
Ultimate Soccer Mom Van for our Arroyo Grande road trip!
Thatcher and Andrew felt a little left out without their names on the van.
The girls got to practice with and meet U.S. women's soccer team member Heather O'Reilly.
A highlight of my Thursdays is taking this crew to practice.
Staring contests are always a carpool favorite.
Lunch break in between games.
That cloud in the distance was a HUGE cloud of smoke from a fire.
The fire kept on growing and growing that weekend.
Todd volunteering as field monitor at one of the club tournaments.
He took his job very seriously.
Orange vest crew unite!
How about the fire now?!
Thatcher always ready to go to practice!
We lucked out with Shoreline park practices again this year.
Team outing to dinner and the Gaucho game.
Playing under the lights during halftime at the Gaucho game.
Samantha's season will continue through spring. They've played 16 games so far, winning four, tying one and losing the rest. She's had 4 goals. I can tell you that one thing she is learning is how much faster she has to run and how much more aggressive she has to be at this level. Club players will knock you down, shove you and push you. I've seen Samantha and her teammates fly up in the air like rag dolls. And the ref will not blow the whistle to see if you are okay until AFTER the ball is out of play. That was shocking to see for the first time. We are having Samantha lift weights now, just kidding. 
Thatcher's season has come to end. Thatcher's team won eight games, tied one and lost one. Thatcher had 16 goals—beating his last year goal count by one!
Video: Thatcher and Samantha's Soccer Season
Samantha's season will continue through next spring and Thatcher may have to take a break from soccer because of our basketball practice schedule (and I'd probably have to clone myself to get him to anything extra we have going on right now). ;)
