A real soaker

What a day yesterday. It was so exciting and awesome. I loved every minute of it. Kaedo and I headed out early and stopped at Starbucks (thanks again Stan and Shirley). We headed out to the tournament site and got there just as the rest of the team was arriving. The boys were psyched and there was a real sense of camaraderie amongst them. I really have to say that I am so impressed with this program and the coaches and every thing they do for these boys. They give up a lot of their time and experience to help these boys be the best they can be and I am so impressed.

The first game we lost 5-0 but the boys remained positive and said they were going to get the next one. There was no chiding from the coaches just some pointers on how to do better and work as a team. They don't go easy on them but they also don't have the philosophy that they have to brow-beat them to get them to perform. One of the big things I noticed was how much the players talk to each other during the game. It is loud and noisy and fast and so exciting.

The second game it started to pour. Torrential downpour. As you can see from the picture above, Kaedo was trying to get the water off his face. You can sort of see the rain coming down.

5 minutes into the game, the ref - who was terrible the first game - got called out by our head coach, questioning a call. Barely any discussion was had and he was thrown out of the game. It really was a shit thing to do and while usually I do not condone that kind of behaviour, our coach did nothing wrong. I sat next to his wife and she said in the 5 years he has been coaching rep soccer he has never been thrown out of a game. Funny thing I learned after was that while he sat in his van, he talked to the assistant coach on her cellphone the entire game, directing the kids. Ha!

Kaedo's coach came up to me yesterday and told me a funny story - he said "Kaeden came up to me and said am I starting or will I be on the bench?" the coach replied, "what do you want to do?" Kaedo said "be on the bench". The coach said he had never had a kid say that to him before. After the final game he checked in with Kaedo and was told he wants to be a starter. Coach thought it was hilarious.

I got up this morning, got dressed, ready to go and checked my phone and their was a call from the team manager/assistant coach saying that because of all the rain they we cancelling today's games. Kaedo is really bummed and I am too. I decided yesterday I would be going today and so that is disappointing. Oh well, another tournament in two weeks. Looking forward to it.

And just for the record - Kaedo played amazingly - his coach was quick to point out how far he's come since the beginning. Needless to say - he was beaming.