The Soccerdad

 

I am a soccerdad.  I've been involved in coaching soccer for my kids' teams since they were in school.  Here is Honora's team, Tidal Wave, at the Spencer 2001 Sizzlin' Skills 4v4 tournament.  We came in second in this tournament.  The assistant coach is Meg Kelly (Le Moyne, '03).

Honora and Kari have older sisters who took most of the pictures at this tournament.  Thanks, Annie and Ashley.  Mark Duening, Laura's dad posted them.

Here is the Tidal Wave at the Joe Santacrose 2001 4v4 tournament sponsored by BC United.  We got hammered in this one.  (I think we did eventually win one game.)  Meg Kelly brought her twin sister, Beth, along for this tournament.  Obviously Beth was bad luck.

Thanks to Mark Duening who took most of these pictures and posted them at Ofoto.com.

Annie's team, Eastwood Express won it all at the 2003 Grafton 3v3 tournament this summer.  I can't post pictures here until I shell out the money to buy a few, but they are spectacular, proving once again that money can buy good things.  See them at askemforaphoto.com.

Here's a picture of the Eastwood Express at the same Santacrose tournament in Endicott in 2001.  Thanks to Pam Stewart, unofficial team mom and photographer extraordinaire.  The Express got to the knock-out round and lost in overtime during the 3v3, no-goalie stage.  :(

Honora plays goal for her school, Nottingham.  This is a typical day for a soccer goalie.  Ouch.

This picture was from the 2003 season when she was a sophomore.  When she graduates as a four-year starter in goal, she will own the Nottingham record for number of saves.  Not a good team statistic. 

I watched her in 2004 and then decided in 2005 that this was my last year as a soccerdad so I volunteered to assist coach her team.  While the team did a little better than in years past, everyone knows that this is because of the players.  (She was a first-team All-Section selection.)  When teams do badly, it's always because the coaches stink.  Here is the closest thing we have to an official team photo.

 

She's going to Syracuse University next year.  I don't think the women's national team is in the cards.

Annie played midfield for Nottingham and Manlius Pebble Hill in her junior and senior years.  She pitched for both Nottingham and MPH.  She did pretty well in both sports at both schools.  Now she's at Mt. Holyoke College and more into music and languages now than sports.  She's in an a cappela group called "Nice Shoes".  I have to figure out how to put an audio clip of her group in here.  She already knows more Chinese than I ever did.

I'm proud of my girls and this is one part of being a father that was all fun.