Early August means back to soccer. This year we said farewell to AYSO for Thatcher as he moved into Santa Barbara Soccer Club making the 2010 Boys White team and Samantha made the 2007 Elite team which was made up of mostly the same girls she has played with since 3rd grade.
Samantha's team kicked off the season with a tournament in Ventura and the Robinson grandparents came up to watch.
Always dribbling.
The Stone family hosted a pre-season pool party at their home and I was put on the spot to do a speech as the team manager. Who knows what the heck I said?!
This ponytail has become a soccer staple. Thatcher's coach gave him three options: headband, ponytail or cut his hair because he kept moving it out of his eyes during games. I was hoping for the headband but oh well. 🤷♀️
This was from a tournament the boys played early on in the season.
The best part of SBSC is the practices. They practice A LOT and they work them hard. Unfortunately the kids' practice days were not the same so it meant driving four times a week to Girsh Park. While I had a good carpool going for the first part of the season, it fell apart sooner than I would have liked it to when other sports/activities overlapped. So, I logged a lot of time in my car.
When Thatcher would come to Sam's practices, Coach Ivan would put him to work as his assistant otherwise known as "the ball shagger".
Taj was a favorite of Thatcher's when the carpool worked!
First league game for Sam!
First league game for Thatcher!
I love when the boys have to shake hands as captains before the game.
Because I was the team manager for Sam's team, I missed A LOT of Thatcher's games. Todd and I were always going in different directions on weekends.
I purposely got Thatcher #20 so he would match Sam. It turned out to be so helpful with laundry as we were never with a dirty uniform when they'd have back to back games.
Meeting Coach Ivan's new baby for the first time, appropriately named, Stryker.
While we don't have to travel too far all the time for club soccer, you do spend a lot of time with the kids and parents. We logged a lot of hours at restaurants in between games.
Playing during halftime at the UCSB game.
Chase's team got to play too.
That ponytail. 😂
Coach Ivan getting into the spirit.
For the first time, these girls took the lead in their fall league and were a game away from winning it all.
Thatcher always got special attention from Coach Ivan.
Sometimes the SBSC Elite team has to play against the SBSC White team. They are all such great friends and do a lot of practices together so the competition is always friendly.
And they did it! For the first time since Sam started at SBSC, they took first place going 11-1-0 for the season.
I love that they gave me a shout out. As if I had anything to do with this. 😂
There are no days off, even when it rains, they practice.
Especially because as soon as fall league is over, the teams begin to prepare for State Cup which is the biggest tournament they play of the season.
As we moved into winter season, a good portion of the team had added on basketball so we were all figuring out how to get the girls to and from basketball games/practices onto the soccer field or basketball court. I grabbed this group early to head to a basketball game which turns out to be the most stressful thing to do since the soccer club coaches HATE when you pull girls early for other sports. 🙄😕
Thatcher's team bonding over video games and pizza before their State Cup tournament.
The first place CSL medals arrived and Coach Ivan was still beaming and taking pictures. This first place medal also means they move up a bracket for next year.
More prep for State Cup, a scrimmage against the boys. At this point, these 11 and 12-year-old girls are just as aggressive as the boys. And the boys they played were not going easy on them. Unfortunately we had one girl leave with an injury.😕
Thatcher's first State Cup game and he got to be captain.
State Cup games are always somewhere glamorous (Norco, Lancaster, San Bernardino etc.) but the hotel stays are fun. I can't remember where Todd and Thatcher went, maybe Corona?
Thatcher's Coach, Coach Hans, had a coaching conflict during State Cup so they got to have the Elite team's Coach, Waid.
The boys did great and advanced to the following weekend!
Thatcher was in Encinitas for his State Cup second weekend (the younger teams start earlier) and Sam's State Cup was in Oceanside for her first weekend so at some point our family reconnected because we weren't too far away from each other.
Day one of State Cup and undefeated.
The best part of State Cup!
The girls were bummed I didn't decorate the soccer van! It was dirty enough for them to try and write something with their fingers though. 😬
We haven't updated any of the photos on their player cards but this is how long most of the girls have been playing together. They all look like babies in these photos.
The girls ended up winning all of their games and advanced to the following weekend as well.
Catching up on sleep after a long weekend of soccer.
These boys log a lot of time together and from what I have seen from Samantha's team with not a lot of movement of players, these boys will probably be playing soccer together for a long time.
The season continues into spring which then overlaps with baseball.
While Thatcher loves soccer, baseball seems to steal his heart when it comes around.
He missed a lot of these games which is also the time you are trying out for the following season.
But he did end up making the same team for next season and was asked to play up with the Elite team in a spring tournament as well as practices. 🙌 If only there was an extra month in the year to space out these sports....
Another scrimmage against the boys.
In Lancaster for Sam for State Cup week two.
Trying to warmup in freezing temps.
Coach Fifi was going to be transitioning to Sam's team for the 2019/2020 season so he was interested in hearing how his new team was doing in State Cup. An overtime win in State Cup is so exciting!
Back at it again the next morning EARLY to Lancaster.
Probably the coldest my van had ever felt outside!
It was FREEZING! You can't see it but there was ice on the fields. The girls had to wear long sleeves and tights under their shorts.
Unfortunately they lost day-two, week-two of State Cup which was single elimination at that point and we were back on the road to SB.
A spring tournament near the Ventura mall means CPK. And also means you give the girls money to go cruise an indoor mall (a novelty to SB kids with no indoor mall) and they come back with these. 🤔
Target is a good time killer.
Made the championship game which went into penalty kicks which is the WORST way to lose a game. I still consider them winners 😉
One last spring game before the end of the season.
Which was near Dancing Grandma and Papa Ward 😊
Samantha had 14 goals for the season and Thatcher had 12.
And here's some video from the season which includes one proud Dad at times as well as some side-line coaching that is hard to listen to. 🤪 🙉
The kids have a few months and then they will be back at it again in August!
