Because ONE Soccer Team Wasn't Enough.....

So, in seventh grade, kids are eligible to try out for school sports.  Alyssa has had her sights set on playing for school since sixth grade.  Girl's school soccer is played in the spring and it has been a LLLONNG wait for the season to arrive!  Twenty one girls tried out, eighteen made the team.  Alyssa was lucky enough to be selected!  But then the reality set in.

School games are played Tuesday and Thursdays until 530.  Meaning she missed most of the rest of her recreation league practices. Coach Brittany was totally fine with this thankfully!  But Alyssa realized she really missed the girls she played with on that team!  Practice everyday after school means packing an extra bag of soccer gear, along with the large back pack full of school books.  Far away games mean getting home at 7pm to start homework.

School soccer is different than rec league soccer in many ways.  Let's start with field size.  School team plays on the football field and rec league plays on a field about 2/3 that size.  About half the school team plays travel ball.  Talk about aggressive....and they use EVERY legal part of their bodies to make contact with that ball!  We even saw one girl on another team get knocked out by heading a kicked ball.  It was kicked from the goalie box to about the 50 yard line.  These girls are FAST too.  Kaylee, who used to play rec league with us and everyone thought she looked like a road runner when she ran.  Well, she looks like she is standing still sometimes in these games, yet she is running full speed.  Amazing.  Don't get me wrong.  Kaylee runs at lightning speed.  School soccer girls are NOT afraid of the ball, at all.  Sometimes they head the ball back and forth so many times that I think we are at a volleyball game.  They do these ballet looking kicks, think split in mid air, and they actually make contact with the ball AND make it go where they want it!  One girl on our team can do a corner kick and make that ball curve in at the last moment and go into the goal!

Though the school team is not filled with her friends or even people that Alyssa really likes, she has learned a lot of skills and needless to say her endurance has improved drastically.  She has played well and hopes to play next year, when her friends from the rec league will also be on her school team (they are all in 6th grade since rec league is divided by age, not grade).

It's also very hard to get pictures at school games.  The first hinderance is the size of the field.  Then factor in the speed at which these girls run and the fact that the bleachers are level with the playing field.  We did get to play one game at the high school, so I had real bleachers to sit in and take pictures from!  So, all these games are from the New Century vs Crane's Creek Middle School game.  New Century won 8-0.

If you are having a problem spotting Alyssa, look for the black cleats with yellowish green stripes and blue laces or number 21 in purple.

 Alyssa, Kia McKibben and Kaylee Herman warming up.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

These are under the date April 2009 in my computer.  I  think that is correct and that this is the end of the year party for the U8 team.

 This is Maggie Chavis.

 Maggie, I don't know who, Alyssa, Jocelyn Wiggins and I don't know who.

Jocelyn at the table smiling and Alyssa, making sure I saw her trophy.  Really wish i could see her face!

Post Victory Bribes

As promised, since Alyssa played her heart out (and so did the entire team) we went to Di'lishi, the new fro-yo shop in Souther Pines.  And yes, Alyssa did get a smidge of fro yo under all those toppings!

And the calzone from Valenti's for victory dinner!

Oh, and if she lost, she had to eat veggies and fruits for dinner!

Hurricanes Soccer U12 CHAMPS!

March April and May, Saturday mornings are filled with Alyssa's soccer team.  Some of these girls she has played with since she was 5 years old.  Others are new friends.  The team has had a fantastic year, despite more than one coaching  change.  Fall season,  Coach Christy Mickle led the Huricanes to first place standing.  She stepped down for the spring season when she learned she was expecting.  After a bit of panic, thinking we had a Dad to coach, finding out they moved to Florida over the December break, the Wiggins family thought of a dear friend from church, Brittany Grider.  She took over and led the Hurricanes to the U12 Championship!  Ending the season with 5 win, 1 loss and 1 tie.

Alyssa herself has had an awesome year.  She has grown into a great defender and not much gets past her.  This accomplishment has come after many years of soccer games, enduring heat and cold, winter academy for two years, playing in ice and snow and arctic feeling conditions.  Her foot skills sometimes mimic dance as she takes the ball away from opponents.  She can clear a ball most the way down the field, but most impressive is how she can judge kicking the ball just far enough to make it land right where an offensive player can take it on down the field.

Picture above, preparing to kick the ball down field on a goal kick.

                                                                                                          Above, in deep thought, surveying the field.  Judging where the ball might go, so she doesn't have to run so far!

Game One of the playoffs.  Hurricanes (#1) played Tempest (#4).  Hurricanes won 3-0.  It was hot, 77 degrees, already at 1030am.  We only had 9 of 14 players show up!  So only one substitute the whole game.

This picture above made me laugh.  I take about 300 pics some games just to get a "good" shot.  But this one made me stop flipping thru the pictures and laugh heartily.  Look at the expressions and arm movements of Tempest girls.  And even our own midfiedler, Madison is unsure if that ball is coming at her.  No worries though, it went right to Madison's foot.  Madison had an awesome game, scoring her first goal of the season!

See the red State Farm pop up shade?  The girls were ever so thankful to the Porters for remembering to bring this to the game!

Between the games, we went to Subway and had a light lunch and enjoyed their wonderfully cool air conditioning!  Alyssa had constant questions about how she did, when she did it, what did we like? what could she improve? ...somehow we ended up telling her if her team won and she played her best, we would get fro-yo on the way home and her favorite calzone for dinner.....

Game 2 of the playoffs  Hurricanes (#1) played Lightning (#2)  130 pm.  Its still hot, about 88 degrees. We still have only one substitute.  But all the girls appear refreshed and the game starts with a hearty cheer..."lets go Hurricanes BOOM BOOM".....

Amy and I kind of joke because in some games Alyssa really doesn't RUN.  She will try to out think the ball.  This game....she ran.  FULL....OUT..... RUN.  and more than once!

                                                                                                            Yes, we parents still make a tunnel for the girls to run through at the end of the games!

The team with their first place medals!  From the left, Lauren Porter, Ainsley Jensen, Kirby, Ellie Oates, Alyssa and Coach Brittany

Other end of the team...Coach Wally Wiggins (filled in for Coach Brittany for 2 games)Tiffani, Maggie Chavis, Jocelyn Wiggins, Madison, Lauren Porter.  Missing players were Hanna and Jenna Burns, Juliette, McClendon and Caroline.

Coach Brittany and Alyssa.  She calls Alyssa solid and dependable!