thisnewday

The Henninger Black Knights boys modified soccer team played their last game of the 2015 season against West Genesee this afternoon and won 5 goals to 1. Which I think, in effect, makes them league champions since they beat the only previously-undefeated team last week by a score of 3-1.

An interesting aspect of these wins, which we noticed early-on, was that even when our opponents matched up well with our starters our second team was almost always so much better than theirs that we were virtually guaranteed the win. In the end, our starters almost always wore the opposition down, but there was at least one game when our starters were outscored by our second team.

With today's win, I'm told, this is Coach Bardenett's 5th undefeated season. The nice thing is, the great thing for the kids, is that he's such a humble man, a great role model who doesn't run up the score when he clearly can. He expects the highest level of sportsmanship from his players and exemplifies that on the field.

Congratulations, Coach, and thanks for a great season!

LPK
LiveJournal
10.21.2015 

The grandson and his Henninger Black Knights modified soccer team took on the Fayetteville-Manlius Hornets in their home opener on Friday at Huntington School. F-M scored first but the Knights continuously pressured their opponent's goal and had a number of shots that were either slightly high, slightly wide, or stopped by the goalie.

About midway through the first half, the second squad was subbed-in for Henninger and they immediately scored two quick goals which obviously stunned the visitors and their fans. As they had earlier, the Knights kept up the pressure on both offense and defense and the half ended with the score Henninger 2, F-M 1.

Henninger opened the second half with their starters back on the field and this time they scored to make it a 3-1 game. Again, at midway through the half, the second squad came in for Henninger. This time they held their own but had some lapses, on both offense and defense, which could've been game-changers if siezed-on by the visitors.

With control of the game now hotly contested in its final minutes, the starters were sent back in to finish the half and bring home the 3-1 victory.

All things considered, it was a pretty good game. This team, which has been together for barely three weeks, is obviously a work in progress. And with the outdoor soccer season so compressed, they're going to have to develop quickly. Next week, they have three games, two of them away. After that, they have two games a week for each of the remaining three weeks of the season.

Jason did well, was called out by the coach for a great assist on the second-half goal, and after the game we were stopped by one of the F-M moms who complimented Jason and the team on their amazing skills. As usual, he was too embarassed to respond, so I said "thanks" on his behalf. She obviously read the situation and we both laughed.

Hopefully, as these kids get used to playing as a team, learn each other's skills and tendencies, we'll have some success out on the road where we'll be next week vs. Auburn and West Genesee. There's also a chance that Jason and Cyrus will meet up with another of their SDA teammates at West Genny, which should be interesting...

LPK
LiveJournal
9.26.2015 (a)

This morning, I got up at 6 AM, made coffee, took my meds, got myself dressed, and then made sure that the grandson responded to the cheery wake-up call he'd installed on his cell phone to get him up on school days.

"Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, no, not that sugary crap your dad buys for himself and your little brother, check your book bag, pack your soccer bag, here, try on last year's compression shorts to see if they still fit, oh, they don't, well, I guess that tells me what I'm doing this morning." That was how the basically one-sided conversation went, punctuated by periodic groans from the unenthused listener.

Then, at 7:20, we were out the door and, after dropping him off at Huntington K-8 School, I jumped on the highway and headed east of the city for Walmart and Target.

Near the end of the summer, as things were winding down with his SDA club team, we decided to have him try out for his school's modified (7th and 8th grades) boy's soccer team. This would be Jason's first experience with a school sports team and, because of our late decision, we had to jump through some hoops (or a certain backward-facing body orifice) to make it happen.

At least that's what the folks in the school office had led us to believe. After we'd shredded our previously-made plans, and thereby introduced further chaos into our already dysfunctional lives, we were assured by his coaches that none of that had really been necessary. Still, it was obvious that other challenges lay directly ahead, albeit of an athletic nature.

Due to budget problems which had arisen several years ago, when the state's newly-elected governor took the unprecedented step of attempting to balance the budget, a substantial chunk of the state's aid to New York's cash-strapped cities had been withheld and local school districts had, in turn, reduced funding for sports and other extra-curriculars.

To avoid eliminating sports altogether, the Syracuse city schools responded by dividing the district into east and west and the several middle schools in each half of the city were formed into combined teams for the two areas. Which meant that on our side of town three middle schools, Grant, Huntington, and Lincoln, would send 7th and 8th graders to try out for a single boy's modified soccer team. In all, 52 kids showed up to try out for 22 positions.

The result being that many kids, among them the most needy, would be effectively deprived of any reasonable hope of participation. In addition, Syracuse is now host to a large and growing immigrant population, many of whom come from countries where soccer is the only sport available to kids. And, while I'm all for being a gracious and welcoming host, in this traditional land of opportunity, I think we need to balance our generosity to others with our ability to provide for our own. The expression, "Charity begins at home" comes to mind here.

Anyway, despite Jason's fairly long and intensive involvement with the sport, it was gonna be a challenge. And then, two days into the tryouts, he got sick and missed the next two days. Jeeeez! So I emailed one of the coaches, explained our caution, vis-a-vis the asthma, and begged for a stay of execution. Granted. Whew! (And he had made the cut anyway.)

For the next two days, he performed really well, good speed, good ball handling, good aggresiveness on defense. But on the second afternoon, when I stopped by to pick him up, I saw him bent over on the sidelines looking like he was trying to shake something off. An effing groin pull. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY? Was it because I'd said that Luis Suarez was lower than whale poop for trying to bite off another guy's ear in the World Cup? C'mon, soccer gods, he was picked up by Barcelona after that, became a vegetarian, and rehabilitated his career. No harm, no foul, right?

Apparently, the gods don't listen to whiners because Jason still missed another day. Which necessitated another supplication by email, the promise that we'd again rest him over the weekend, and that we'd make every effort to have him back by Monday, ready to play. Which, somehow, he was. And made the final cut for the team. Along with 5 out of the original 12 from his school. Thank you, soccer gods. (Although, for the record, I still think Luis Suarez is a chump.)

For two more days, he battled to move up from the "B" team to the "A" team. And did that, as well. (I'm pretty sure that if he hadn't missed 3 out of the first 7 days that the team was together, he'd have been "A" team from day one.)

So yesterday was uniform day and, as they were being handed out, travel instructions were also given for today's scrimmage against the west side team on their home turf over in the The Valley. In a way, it'll be a sort of homecoming for me because it's at the school where I used to take our oldest daughters for indoor swimming, almost 40 years ago.

Anyway, I came up empty at Walmart--they'd totally turned over their seasonal stock which, I suppose, could reasonably include soccer shorts, but had replaced most of their teen athletic gear with everyday wear for elementary and pre-school kids. So, on to Target where I found Jason's compression shorts and the black outer shorts to match his uniform shirt.

All of which are now laundered, folded, and placed in his 90-pound soccer bag which, I'm convinced, is what actually cause his groin injury. Right now, it's strapped to a hand truck, ready to roll out the door for his first game as a scholastic modified soccer player...

LPK
LiveJournal
9.23.2015