Bellefonte Boys Middle School Soccer August 2, 2022
Video I took of the Bellefonte Boys Soccer match at Central Mountain on August 31, 2022. Video improves a bit after the 20 minute mark as I changed recording methods.
Gareth Bale is Back
Gareth Bale is coming back to Spurs. Something that was rumored to be happening every transfer window since his falling out with Zidane is actually happening.
I think the world needs Gareth Bale back with a chance to play again and hopefully recapture the joy he had playing at Spurs.
A Perfect Opening Day for Fall Soccer
Our first game of the Fall season, and the first game for many of these kids in nearly a full calendar year, wound up a great success. Parents watching the game all seemed to keep at an appropriate social distance from each other and the kids played hard and had fun. And there were no injuries.
The game itself wound up in a tie, which I think is the best possible result. After all the way this season works is that we have 26 kids and we split them in different teams of 13 kids each week and them just play a game. A blowout game wouldn’t be fun for everybody. The icing on the cake was that my son scored a nice scorcher of a goal in the first half and generally moved the ball well.
For me it just felt nice to be out there with the kids, and doing my part to put them in places where they’ll have fun and be successful. The photo above is my attempt on paper for the first half to get kids as near equal playing time as possible. I think that went well too.
All in all it was a nice Saturday on the cusp of Autumn in Pennsylvania.
Putting On the Whistle One More Time
So, I’m coaching soccer again.
What with the global pandemic and all, things have changed everywhere in life, including youth sports. People are still a bit wary about things and so when we received sign-ups for our local soccer club our numbers were down a bit from years past. And there were just so many questions. So we decided to forego our usual travel soccer programs (travelling to other counties in Pennsylvania) and just do things in house as a club. Which means we needed more coaches.
So I’m coaching our U13 co-ed team. This was our first week, and it’s gone pretty good so far. It’s nice that a number of the kids in the program are ones I coached at the U8 level. They’ve all grown so much. And luckily they are right at the edge of still being young enough to be entertained by my corny jokes and general weirdness.
Our first game is tomorrow. Each week we are splitting up the 26 kids we have into 2 teams and then having them play against each other. No it won’t be like playing against kids from other towns, but hopefully it will still be fun and more importantly keep them progressing with their skills. And it gets me out in the nice Autumn air.
Wayne Rooney Play