To our own admission, we are all a work in progress, as coaches, players and people. Many lessons had to be learned twice this season, and many obstacles were faced along the way to becoming a TEAM.
Through it all, learning took place. A sort of collection in life lessons that may not make any sense now to all whom endured, but will as they get older and look back fondly on these memories.
On behalf of Coach Vali, Coach Dani, Mr. Magowan and myself we’d like to say thank-you to all the Vampire players for their commitment and enthusiasm shown and a special thank-you to all parents who have been communicative and supportive of the football teams. Your voices at our tournaments rang loudest and sparked the extra confidence our kids needed to be their best selves!
In appreciation of their growth some of the Vampire players made a few remarks and comments: Sean of the U9 Vampires proclaimed, “I liked spending time with my teammates. It was fun!”
While his teammate David Gonzalez added, “It was a really fun year and I’m happy that we grew a lot since last year.”
For newcomer Marci, the experience was a good one, in that he mentions, “I like the teacher and players.”
Let’s not forget our girls’ teams who continued their tradition in the BISAC league. For the U9 girls, it was a time of learning and spending time with the ball at their feet where great skill development happens through play. As their coach, I can only remind them to stay humble and continue being ambassadors and advocates for girls in football, showing our society that they can do anything. If someone told me You Kick Like a Girl, I’d respond THANK-YOU, knowing it is a compliment. Under 11 team captain Emma Nastase said, “For our team to work together we needed to trust each other, and we did, otherwise we would not have had so many passes or scored so many goals.”
While Josephine, our leader on the field and the one girl who also was a part of the U11 boys team, reminds us, “girls can achieve anything the boys can!”
As far as our U11 boys, I can only say that their takeaway word is discipline. As a teary-eyed Coach Vali told the team in his farewell address last Saturday morning, “Practice, must always be approached with discipline, because this is also how we must approach our life. Other than football, this is what I tried teaching you.” Hopefully the student-athletes who were under our wing this year take their enduring understanding of being a good sports-person and teammate with them into their future endeavors and we fondly wish them the best of luck in middle-school athletics. Go Vampires!
For the photos of the tournament, please visit this Vampires spring photos site. A special thank-you to Mrs. Zsófia Balthazár for being our teams’ photographer!