Soccer Tryouts 2013

For three days this past week, Zac and Ben endured the trial of soccer tryouts for the 2013/2014 soccer seasons.  Well, it's not so much a trial when they are playing a game they love!  We soccer parents laugh a little because the tryouts are really just for maybe 20 kids who are borderline between teams, otherwise, the coaches have watched these kids so much during the season that they really know where they are going to be placed already.  We call it the "dog and pony show."  But the boys have fun playing together and love to show off their stuff, so I guess it's not a big deal, even if it means spending 4 hours (2 hours each for each Zac and Ben) in the blasting late-spring Colorado wind.

It was Ben's first year trying out.  He's been playing at the intermediate level for our soccer club, Pride, which means his team was "competitive" rather than "developmental" but he didn't need to tryout for the team.  But with next season, he will enter the big leagues, so tryouts were a must.  He did a great job!  On the first day, the coach that wanted him on his team (and the coach Ben wanted to play with) told him to stop playing so well, so the other coaches wouldn't want him.  Ben was so excited, but still played his little heart out.  Ben primarily plays forward, but sometimes moves back to midfield.  He was picked for the United team, the same team that Zac has played for the past two years, but for the '02/'03 age group rather than the '00/'01 age group that Zac plays.  Ben was thrilled!  Zac was pleased as well; he was so supportive of and encouraging to Ben, but he confessed that his pride might have been a little wounded if his little brother had made a higher team than he.  Ben's coach will be Coach Glen, just the coach Ben wanted, and the team looks like they will be really strong.  With great coaching and the talent on the team, they are going to be solid!

Zac was offered a place, once again, on the United team.  Zac really enjoys this team and has played with some of these boys for three seasons.  He regularly plays at left-midfield.  He is an integral player and his presence on the field makes a difference for the team.  He is fantastic at reading the field and knowing where he needs to be and how to move the ball in the right direction, he can find lanes and positions himself well; his strength has improved a lot this season too, so he's got a lot of power behind his shots.  Zac was happy to be on United again, although he's eager to move up one level to the Copa team.  United is the third level team for our club, right in the middle of the pack, there are two higher teams (Predators and Copa) and two lower teams (Red and White).  We like this level because the cost isn't horrendous (just a little painful) and travel for games is all within the state.  The exciting part of tryouts for Z was that the Copa coach watched him play, and liked what he saw enough that Zac and a couple other United boys have been asked to practice with the Copa team once a week when practices start up in mid-July. 

Adam and I can happily cheer, "GO UNITED!" at both boys' games!