Santa Barbara Soccer Club: State Cup

Samantha has now finished her first year of club soccer with the Santa Barbara Soccer Club (SBSC). There have been some definite highs and definite lows with the club. We have learned a lot about club sports (and all stars) and as we navigate Samantha's involvement (and now Thatcher's) we feel like we are armed with more knowledge on signing up for these types of things in the future. Case in point, we took a break from all-star softball this year. 

SBSC participates in the Cal South State Cup each January which also coincides with basketball season for Sam. Samantha LOVES playing basketball (loves soccer but LOVES basketball). So, because her club soccer team had more than enough players/subs for the first day of the tournament, Samantha stayed back in SB to play basketball (she had her best game of the season) and then we headed down to Norco (yes, beautiful Norco) the second day of the tournament. Apparently, only places like Norco have giant soccer complexes to accommodate teams from all over Southern California. 

Bottle flipping with the team. The most annoying game for parents to listen to. 

Love this group of girls and how talented they have become as a team. 

Slumber party in our room! 

Game time! The team had won the first game the prior day.

Game #2: Another win! 

The benefit of Norco is Grandma and Poppy live nearby!

Bob's Big Boy was a first for Sam. Bob looks like he is about to perfectly place a burger on Sam's head. 

These girls completely surprised me. For the season leading up to State Cup, out of all the games they played, there wasn't a whole lot of winning. And let's face it, while winning isn't everything, it is WAY more fun to be on a team that gets the "W" more often than not. 

These girls showed up at State Cup and it was like something had clicked. They had been training together twice a week, sometimes more, since August, and they had improved so much, it was great to see! 

Game #3: Another win and even more exciting, Sam scored a goal! This was her 5th goal of the season. Quite the opposite of AYSO where goals were happening every game, not so much at this level.

My Aunt Charye and Uncle Tim also live nearby so they got to see Samantha score! 

So with three wins for weekend #1, it meant we would continue on the following week. With rain delays and basketball conflicts/reschedules, the second weekend of State Cup didn't fit in our schedule. I ended up sending Samantha down with another teamate's family. If they won, they would continue on and my parents would take Samantha home from Norco to their house and we'd meet them down later. If they lost, well, she'd be coming home with that friend. 

Thatcher was soon playing tennis with Poppy so yes, they won!

And here we are stopping for lunch in Thousand Oaks on the way home. The team wouldn't be advancing to the next round but overall it was exciting to see the girls do so well and we had a renewed energy in SBSC especially since the club was changing up their coach which would be a good thing for these girls. 

Video: Here's some video of Samantha from the tournament including her goal!

The 07 White team was on a super high! 

And then came try-outs for the next season....

While the current team was playing in the Spring league, changes to the roster for the following season were already being announced. This is the not so fun part of club sports. Sadly, after the State Cup, the club made decisions to break our team up. Some were invited to White, some invited to a lower level and some new teammates filled in. 

 Total bummer for our team. In our teams case and how well they did at State Cup (not to mention inconsistent coaching the entire year), not one of these girls should have been moved. They deserved another season with their new coach. All of this resulted in some players quitting mid-Spring season. 

Samantha did not get an invitation to the White team initially. There were back and forth emails/calls to me regarding us missing that first State Cup game, Samantha's involvement in multiple sports (at one point softball came into the mix overlapping with basketball and soccer) and basically they questioned her commitment to the team. It is our philosophy (and I wish it were the clubs) to expose our kids to as many sports as possible. Why in the world would I have Samantha play only soccer if she was enjoying other sports?! There are still so many sports/activities she wants to try so I told Samantha we would finish out the season and whether it was AYSO or another club, she would definitely continue soccer. 

Well, fast forward to Samantha finishing out Spring season and she had probably the best games of the entire year. The new coach finally took her out of defense and moved her to forward (where she should have been the entire year) and the calls/emails took a turn from the club. They wanted her.

Long story short, the new coach is going to be great for the team. We will have, for the most part, a lot of the same girls and players in positions they belong in and the best thing about SBSC is the twice a week workouts that she will continue. So, we are signed up for another season and we feel strongly that when we start back up again in August, Samantha will be in for a great 2017/2018 soccer season. Oh and, she WILL continue a lot of other things BESIDES soccer ;) 

Jog-A-Thon 2017

The kids made another video this year to help get donations for Peabody's jog-a-thon. I should say I made a video. ;) 

We received a little help from Jenny Schatzle of the Jenny Schatzle Program.

Video: 2017 Fallon Jog-A-Thon Video

Todd pulled an all-nighter doing signs for the school. I learned later that the P.E. teacher saved the signs that Todd did last year. Well that would have been nice to know. So now we have two years worth of signs which means less sign-making in the future except for whatever new trend is happening that doesn't already have a sign. This year it was the "Hatchimal" and Amazon's "Alexa". 

This year's theme was Pokemon at the kick-off assembly. 

Our P.E. teacher and Principal did a hilarious Pokemon Go skit for the kids. 

Shea Shea and Sam Sam excited to run!

Thatcher was up first! 

Thatcher ran and ran and ran but as we were nearing the 20 minute mark, which was only half-way, I was desperately trying to get his attention to pace himself and drink some water. 

BTW, it was a beautiful, HOT day and as you can see, the event was moved to our school field instead of Mackenzie Park across the street where it has been since we started at Peabody. We ended up having to postpone the jog-a-thon several times due to the rain and Mackenzie Park was flooded. It actually turned out to be way nicer to have it at our school with our nice green grass. What drought?! ;)

Thatcher and Mateo seemed to be in the lead the entire time. 

40 minutes of running complete. 

Next up, Sam! 

Samantha and Char were fired up, both had a chance at the first place spot since Ashley, the girl who bumped Sam out of first place after kindergarten in both first and second grade, moved to another school. 

Jenny and I take a picture of these two each years. It's getting more painful for them as they get older. 

In kindergarten they were more than willing!

Like last year, Samantha immediately panicked because she got a side ache right out of the gate 

Despite the pain she was in, she didn't stop. 

I have never been so relieved for that clock to hit 40 minutes! She looked miserable the whole time. 

Video: Thatcher and Samantha running

It took a while, but Samantha's flushed face finally settled and she was a happy girl by the end of the day. 

Both kids received their lap counts from the time chips at the end of the day. 

In 40 minutes, Samantha ran 37 laps (4.4 miles) and Thatcher ran 34 laps (4.1 miles). What the kids didn't know is where they placed. They would have to wait until the awards assembly which wasn't going to be for another month. 

The Jog-A-Thon assembly was already set up to turn the school into a carnival/dance party event since the school had surpassed their goal of $100,000 raising $110,000!!!! There were bounce houses, a disco ball and strobe lights in the auditorium, dunk tanks, a DJ, dodge ball competitions and on and on. 

The yellow circles on Todd's sign were to be colored red at the assembly should the school have met their goal. 

Ta-da! 

Prizes were handed out to the kids who raised the most money, those who had the most pledges and then the top runners get a chance at a price via a drawing.

One of the best prizes is the "Winds of Fortune" which is like a game show where you have to collect all the money flying in the cage in a certain time frame. 

Now on to the more important things...

Samantha has won back her first place title! (Thanks Ashley for changing schools, we do miss you though!)

And....First place for Thatcher! He actually tied for first with a kid named Steve. Which now all the journal writing at school he does usually has a sentence that says, "I am faster than Steve." You are still two for two Thatcher with 1st place. Maybe Steve will change schools? ;) 

Video: Awards Assembly 

More importantly than the running, congrats you two on raising almost $500 for your school!