2013 Senor Girls High School Soccer

[Captain Shamrock]

SD 2 Princess Margaret 0

In my 16 years of coaching at South Delta I have yet to see a worse effort from a South Delta team than I did today. I will leave it at that and say that this season will be coming to an abrupt halt in league play with that sort of display.

 

[Titan4Life]

Sounds like you had a bad day Captain. Similar to my Monday, but at least you got the win.

Elgin 2 Tamanawis 2

A much better effort. Had 16 girls out, but missing our two starting CBs. Fortunately we had back a star who hasn't played in 18 months due to concussions. It was a back and forth game. We took a 1-0 lead and should have at least been tied at the half, but the ref gave an atrocious PK which they converted. Ties at half. We came out stronger in the second. But they countered well. We never gave up and were rewarded with a goal in the last five on an amazing effort by our returnee. She beat 5 or 6 girls and then slotted home neatly.

I thought we deserved three points, but we will take one knowing that other teams will drop points to them or someone else along the way.

Our hopes of top 4 are back on.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

Our hopes of top 4 are back on.

Guess your earlier conclusion about your team's playoff chances may have been premature?

Any word on how the "awful" team you played last game faired this time around?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Earl Marriott 2 ND 0

 

[Captain Shamrock]

SD 7 Seaquam 0

The girls put in a better shift today but against a Seaquam team which was missing several players. They had some athletic girls and speed but didn't have much depth with those players missing. With a full squad, Seaquam would give anyone a go I'm guessing. But today, they were short in depth and it gave us some openings to exploit.

 

[Titan4Life]

Elgin 3 Panorama 2

Can't comment too much as I was coaching our juniors on the field next door. However, what I can say is that our 12 girls worked their butts off and were fully deserving of the victory. Panorama is the defending Provincial champs for a reason and are really solid. But today our girls worked hard and scored more than they did.

After a poor start opening two games, our last two have given us a lot of hope moving forward. With consistent numbers and efforts, we could be a tough out in valleys or provs. A win Wednesday and top four starts to look much more attainable.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Sullivan Heights has just pulled out of the league, T4life. Shocking.

 

[Titan4Life]

Sullivan Heights has just pulled out of the league, T4life. Shocking.

Not that shocked Sullivan dropped out. What's that, 3 out of the last 5 years? At least if its a number thing, we still play with 9 (right Rosie!!!).


Elgin 2 Delta 1

Another game with only 11. Fortunately we had a grade 8 step up and score twice for us. They are a really physical team who works really hard. They pushed us to the end, but we managed to get the win. With a bit of better finishing, a few more bodies or some luck we should have pulled away and win 4-1. But a win is a win. On to the next one

 

[Captain Shamrock]

well done, T4life. Delta is tougher this year. We will have difficulty with them because there is a 'rivalry'. We are heading to Victoria tomorrow with a grand total of 12 players....several HPL players pulled out the last minute...hard to believe especially when they were told it was a MANDATORY practice. Quality.

 

[BROWN ALE]

Not that shocked Sullivan dropped out. What's that, 3 out of the last 5 years? At least if its a number thing, we still play with 9 (right Rosie!!!).

This is the first time that I have run a Sr. Girls Soccer team and this has been my third year at the school. This is also our first year at triple A, so we would probably wouldn't have played you before! We had no problem playing with 10 players two of which were grade 8 girls, but these girls got injured and our grade 8 team played with 10 the next day. Just to clarify what happened...we started off with 15 - lost a whitepcaps player down to 14...had a girl need an ambulance against your school 13...had a girl get second degree burns all over her body down to 12...had another girl get injured and on crutches down to 11...one girl got a job down to 10...and then next come the community coaches, when you have 10 healthy bodies and one or two are absent it is difficult to field a team each week, from the two games we played we had you tied 1 at half time and were up 1 on Tammy at half. It wasn't my choice to fold the team, but I had 5 girls committed to the SD game considering almost every grade 8 girl that has played senior has come out of the game with a knock, not many grade 8's are super excited to play senior.

Sorry for having to fold Burnsie, but coaching both senior and junior girls and not hving enough either day was taking its toll...hopefully we can get back to how we have been with these girls in the past as 14 of the original 15 girls are back at the school next year.

 

[Titan4Life]

Just to clarify what happened...we started off with 15 - lost a whitepcaps player down to 14...had a girl need an ambulance against your school 13...had a girl get second degree burns all over her body down to 12...had another girl get injured and on crutches down to 11...one girl got a job down to 10...and then next come the community coaches, when you have 10 healthy bodies and one or two are absent it is difficult to field a team each week.

Sorry for having to fold Burnsie, but coaching both senior and junior girls and not hving enough either day was taking its toll...hopefully we can get back to how we have been with these girls in the past as 14 of the original 15 girls are back at the school next year.

BA,

I totally understand the whole numbers thing. It's hard to get them to commit when there is so much else going on with school, work, injuries and then those damned community coaches.

I coach the Sr's and Jr's and we specifically took 21 on each team just to avoid the numbers problem. Yet, most games we have played this year have been with 13 or less. In fact, the only games we have lost at both Sr and Jr level are when we have 10 or less.

Imagine how much easier and fulfilling it would be to coach a team with 14 bodies every day. We'd love it, the girls wouldn't have to kill themselves and we could all try to achieve our potential.

Pipe dream I guess.

Just goes to show that Captain really is good at what he does in order to have such a consistent program over the past decade. Kudos to you Captain.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

Commitment seems to be a common problem. What is the logic behind community coaches not wanting their players to get some extra touches in? Seems they are happy to let them play any number of sports (volleyball, basketball, hockey, etc.) but as soon as they get some extra work in with their primary sport it's a bad thing? Seems the likelihood of injury should be fairly even across the board, whether it's school soccer or playing basketball with their friends at the community centre no?

Not to spend too much time on the soap box but I always thought school sports were a rare chance to actually win something that would leave a bit of a legacy. Maybe I've seen too many movies. At the end of the day who remembers who won the 2008 U18 girls provincial cup? The girls who were on the team and their parents maybe? I bet you the whole school remembers who won the Sr. Girls provincial championship that season...

PS: T4L you're really having trouble making friends here eh? LOL

 

[krutov]

I think that I need to chime in hear as I am one of those community coaches. First off I had no problem at all with the girls playing in school soccer as long as the coach played them accordingly. My U17 girls reached the Provincial B cup last year (they may have forgotten those wonderful 4 days in Kelowna by now) and finished first in the league this year with a great shot at making it again this year.

The problem is the timing of the girls’ school soccer season. It runs the same time as girls’ playoffs for BC soccer. These girls spend 8 months building a team only to have a school teacher not give a crap about that and run girls into the ground right before a club teams cup game.

I had some very unfortunate circumstances with injuries suffered in school soccer that played a large part in an early in cup play exit this year. Two girls with torn ligaments and two more with knee issues all suffered from playing school soccer. The not so unfortunate issue is the coach playing two of my players to death in a mean nothing tournament 2 days before their opening cup game. He was aware of this and did it anyway, the girls were too tired to even help his own team if he actually knew them enough about them he would have given them an occasional rest.

To recap I encouraged the girls to play but to do it smartly. This year it bit them in the ass but some of it could also have been avoided if a high school coach would have coached appropriately with his roster of about 23 girls.

It is so awesome that his school team is 4 and 0 this year so far. The girls don't care if they win or lose they are there for the fun of it. The high school games are forgotten about before they get to the parking lot. Club games win or loss they think about for a week. Why should club coaches stand down on this?

I know most of you are respectful of your situations but as you all know everyone is different. The timing of the soccer season is what causes most of the issue. I would love to hear the rant’s if they moved the boys high school season to the spring.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

It's all about angles. It really is.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Just back from the UVic tournament and had a great time though I'm sure the kids will not care because it's not club soccer.

Small squad this year but still managed a couple of decent games.

Mount Bucherie 4 South Delta 1 - OVER POWERED - big strong physical team against predominantly junior team.

South Delta 7 Mount Douglas 0 - score says it all

South Delta 7 Gulf Islands 2 - score says it all

South Delta 0 Okanagan Mission 1 - we were rotten this morning

South Delta 3 Salmon Arm 0 - decent performance considering it was our fifth game

Overall, a great few days with the kids and a couple of dinners with the parents and kids.....bonding though it might be moot as it has been mentioned that kids don't give a damn about their school teams and forget it by the time they get to the parking lot.

Onto two VERY tough games against Delta Secondary and Panorama Ridge this week.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

Perhaps though the problem could be solved by having the girls play in the fall? That would get around krutov's issue with the timing of the season. Although, presumably teams would have greater conflicts with the volleyball season.

I thought krutov made a great point though, right before he intimated that Captain Shamrock's school league is a fluffy waste of time that everyone would be better off without. (Not that I want to really take sides here but "forgotten about before they get to the parking lot" seems to be a gross assumption. Followed by another completely baseless assertion that girls fret over their club soccer results all week. I doubt if anyone in this forum can say difinitively how much of her energy and emotions a teenage girl devotes to her extra-curriculars)

But krutov I thought you nailed it when you said that the girls play high school soccer FOR FUN. Which I assume is why they play club soccer as well. Heck I would assume that's why they do most of what they do. That's why I played this game all my life, and why I played high school soccer when I had the chance.

In my humble opinion, any coach (school, club or otherwise) who thinks that he or she has the authority to tell a player what she CAN and CANNOT do, has completely lost sight of their responsibilities and the purpose for which they are employed. At the professional level, perhaps, but this is youth soccer and these are kids, many of whom will not play at any higher level than HPL their entire lives. The formatitive teen years are about learning (at school and at life) and one of the things kids need to learn is to accept the consequences of their actions. It's completely fair to assume that if a girl gets hurt playing school soccer she may lose opportunities on her club team while she recovers or she may miss out on a college scholarship or she may let her teammates down when she can't suit up in the cup final. But similarly, if she has chosen to play for her school team, its fair to say that she has a commitment to her teammates there as well.

I would not venture to speak for Captain Shamrock, but I will guess that he would be much less annoyed if the girls that he is missing simply did not want to play. He could account for that when he picks his team and sets his expectations. I think what really serves to annoy Captain (and Titan, and rosie and BA) is that these girls have played before, and showed an interest and genuinely WANT to play, but then are told part way through the season that they are "not allowed".

Maybe I'm totally out to lunch on this one but that's just my thoughts...

 

[Titan4Life]

Perhaps though the problem could be solved by having the girls play in the fall? That would get around krutov's issue with the timing of the season. Although, presumably teams would have greater conflicts with the volleyball season.

I thought krutov made a great point though, right before he intimated that Captain Shamrock's school league is a fluffy waste of time that everyone would be better off without. (Not that I want to really take sides here but "forgotten about before they get to the parking lot" seems to be a gross assumption. Followed by another completely baseless assertion that girls fret over their club soccer results all week. I doubt if anyone in this forum can say difinitively how much of her energy and emotions a teenage girl devotes to her extra-curriculars)

But krutov I thought you nailed it when you said that the girls play high school soccer FOR FUN. Which I assume is why they play club soccer as well. Heck I would assume that's why they do most of what they do. That's why I played this game all my life, and why I played high school soccer when I had the chance.

In my humble opinion, any coach (school, club or otherwise) who thinks that he or she has the authority to tell a player what she CAN and CANNOT do, has completely lost sight of their responsibilities and the purpose for which they are employed. At the professional level, perhaps, but this is youth soccer and these are kids, many of whom will not play at any higher level than HPL their entire lives. The formatitive teen years are about learning (at school and at life) and one of the things kids need to learn is to accept the consequences of their actions. It's completely fair to assume that if a girl gets hurt playing school soccer she may lose opportunities on her club team while she recovers or she may miss out on a college scholarship or she may let her teammates down when she can't suit up in the cup final. But similarly, if she has chosen to play for her school team, its fair to say that she has a commitment to her teammates there as well.

I would not venture to speak for Captain Shamrock, but I will guess that he would be much less annoyed if the girls that he is missing simply did not want to play. He could account for that when he picks his team and sets his expectations. I think what really serves to annoy Captain (and Titan, and rosie and BA) is that these girls have played before, and showed an interest and genuinely WANT to play, but then are told part way through the season that they are "not allowed".

Maybe I'm totally out to lunch on this one but that's just my thoughts...

I agree on just about everything you said. I must be out to lunch as well.

 

[Titan4Life]

Elgin 5 EMS 0

They only had 11 which became 12 a few minutes in. We shockingly had 17. Amazing turnout.

We played a poor first half but still had a 1-0 lead.

After a stern talking to we had a much better second half. I think they only crossed half once the entire half

After this result we are feeling good about our chances of making Valleys. In fact, if not for our 9 man outing against ND, I really think this team could have gone undefeated and won the South. Oh well, all we can do is keep playing like we are and pick up the W's. Can't really control much else. On to PMS!

 

[ThiKu]

The thing I love about the high school coaches argument that either the player is not committed or the community coach doesn't care about high school soccer is when "commitment" becomes an issue because the player attends sessions/games for the team they committed to first. I don't think you can blame a community coach (volunteer or paid) for requesting their players continue with a season that everyone has put so much time and effort into already at that point.

I also delight in the fact when coaches, be they high school or community, demand 100% commitment to their team. It's impossible due to the overlap.

I have a suggestion - when the high school team starts-up ask each player for the contact information for their community coach. Communicate with said coach and you'll probably find most to be reasonable.

The community coach, in return, should be discussing high school soccer/sports with their players in August or early September and figure out what each players goals/aspirations/plans are. Go from there, and keep everything out in the open. Each year I've coached high school-age players I've done this with them. Each year we've done very well in the league, they've all done very well with their high school team, and everyone continued on their merry way because we all knew what dates/games presented a conflict and it was dealt with openly with the individual, and the teammates knew what was happening.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

I think you've nailed it ThiKu. More communication and more reasonable expectations from all parties would likely pave the way for more enjoyment for all.

The problems seem to be arising when one coach, (community or school) starts laying out all sorts of autocratic demands on the players. As Captain mentioned before it really is all about angles. For every arguement for comminuty soccer there is a counter arguement from the school perspective. For example your observation that the players have already put so much time and effort into the community season that they should be obliged to prioritize it, is a great point. I am sure however, that the school coaches could counter with the fact that they only have a sort season so all the results are more crucial, or that the school season is years in the making as each year builds off the last (grade 10, 11, 12), or some other arguement.

In the end I am inclined to believe that each coach thinks that his or her season is the most important, and so he or she should, who wants a dispassionate coach? The issues appear to come to a boil when there is a sense of animosity that one coach believes that the other coach does not give a damn about his or her team's needs. Comments like we have seen here about community coaches "banning" players from playing school soccer leaving teams short on numbers and conversely comments about school coaches "running players into the ground" and costing community teams in important games.

Right now it sounds as if community coaches do not want players playing because it is too much extra activity increasing the chances for injuries and fatigue. This in turn causes school teams to be short on numbers which forces the girls who are there to play significant minutes, which only serves to fuel the community coache's arguement.

This is why I think your dead on about increasing communication. If the coaches can talk and ensure that the players are available when everyone needs them perhaps then the school coach can manage minutes and everyone can benefit.