August 22-26th I stayed at the Hillman's home in Layton. They were in Chicago so I had this beautiful home all to myself. Just down the street from the Hillman's home was a soccer tournament that six of the 16 Infinity teams were playing in. It is not the most prestigious tournament, but many of the best teams in the state were competing. being that all of the teams are new, many of the coaches are novices and my title is (was) Director of Coaching I was at nearly every single match. I was on the sideline of nearly 30 matches in a three day event. The three youngest teams in the club (that were in attendance) all advanced to the championship. The older teams competed well, but at that age, not playing together makes a bigger difference. So the three older teams struggled as they became familiar with one another, while the U11 girls went undefeated and won the entire tournament, the U12 girls knocked off the state cup champions (for the third time in as many attempts)to win their age group and the U13 girls lost to a top five team in the state 1-0 in a battle where they only had one substitution in 95+ degree weather. So we walked out victorious and having made a name for ourselves in the state. People know who Infinity is :)
This last week the community had its biggest tournament of the year, Cache Valley Cup. it is sort of where all the local teams go to strut their stuff. In my opinion the majority of our teams should not be playing in it, as the competition is not very challenging. but because it is sort of a pride thing all the coaches entered. So we had 12 of our 16 teams playing in a tournament this weekend. I sidelined over 50 matches (at least a half at each match). We had eight teams in the championship matches. In two age groups we had two infinity teams playing each other for the championship. We had 6 Champions and 2 runner ups and four teams bring in the bronze. We made a statement in the community that Infinity is the biggest thing around. Whether they jump aboard or not is yet to be determined.
So at the end of the week at Cache Valley Cup they have a coaches vs referee match. Most of the referees are teenagers/early 20 year olds and coaching, well I am one of the youngest coaches. before the match they had a bbq. During the BBQ Infinity put some soccer activities together. Mine was calle street soccer on the tennis courts. So naturally I played and got exhausted before the big coaches match. Eventually I was playing for the coaches as the right winger. it was a fun, I had over 100 Infinity players on the sideline chanting my name every time i did anything. ANyway, someone took a picture of me and here it is:
I did not score any goals but tested the keeper a few times. The match went in to p.k.'s I was the first shooter for the coaches and put it on the roof of the right side of the keeper and stoned him. We lost 8 p.k.'s deep but it was fun!
This week i will be in Sandy for a very large scale tournament. I believe we have four or five teams attending. This is the last big tournament before the season begins in three weeks!
Oh yeah, and i went boating with bobby on Tuesday and a coach this last Saturday. I really have become a boating fan!
Happy 5 A.C. and David!
Love and miss you all!
