Asheville Riverside Shootout Champions

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Asheville Riverside Shootout Champions U14 Boys

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   Two days, four games and four wins gives you the Asheville Riverside Shootout Champions, the SGCSA U14 Flames pictured above.  These 16 boys and their three coaches did an amazing job of winning this tournament!  The games were close and the competition stiff but these boys gave us our Fourth Championship Tournament Win in the past year and a great beginning to this year’s season~

All set, homemade breakfast and lunch sandwiches, lots of water and Gatorade, little bit of Foster the People and a little bit of Rush, and we were on our way for the less than two-hour jaunt to Asheville for day one of the two-day pre-season Riverside Shootout Tournament.

Something about heading the truck toward those majestic smoky mountains always gives me a plane ole good feeling!  Weather was great, alternating sunny and cloudy with a splash of rain but very temperate as we arrived at the Buncombe County Sports Park.  Fields were in great condition, boys were on the ball and looked amazing in this year’s new uniforms.

Turnout was nothing less than expected.  We always have representation from each family and then we also have traveling club members who come out to show their support for our boys.  Thanks guys!  Our soccer family is full of energetic and loyal fans, parents and siblings, friends and past coaches and even traveling grandparents.  Sometimes we’re a bit loud and always willing to assist the referee in finding their lost eye glasses, but mostly we get just as excited as the boys.

We even had a barefoot coach.  Thank you to our dedicated coaching staff~ Benji, Brian and Wagner ~ you are always there for our boys.  And to our boys, they had weekend wins of 2-1, 5-1, 1-0 and 1-0 to bring it home for the championship!

The boys are really never on break.  They move from practices to season games to summer work-outs and middle or high school soccer.  As parents we are constantly watching them, even if it is from the upstairs window as they practice in the front yard, but it did feel grand to be on the sidelines, camera in hand, and back into the official soccer swing this year.

These boys love being on the field, the kicks of the game, the feel of the soccer ball at their feet~ practicing in sweltering summertime heat, playing in the pouring rain or when the temperatures plummet and the fans are so bundled up on the sidelines you can’t tell who’s who, our boys are out there making us proud.

3v3 Annual Festival ~

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The heat did not disappoint us yesterday – we were strong and held out for an awesome day of fun, sun and SOCCER!  Every summer SGCSA holds its annual 3v3 Soccer Festival and judging by the number of young people on the field, soccer balls in the air, parents, coaches, volunteers and tents, it was a success!

          

3v3 just rolls off the tongue like Pb&j but in case you’re new to the phrase it means three versus three.  Comprised of small teams of four to five players, two goals, two coaches, one ball and one ref, each team places three players on the field to oppose three other players, just for fun.   The players are of the same age bracket and there is no goalie which is an advantage to one team and a disadvantage to the other, but equal for both sides.  The playing field is reduced to accommodate the fewer number of players and the goal size is much smaller for additional difficulty.  Game length is also truncated to 30 minutes.  It might look easy due to the smaller scale but it is a little difficult to score when one is used to hitting a much larger target.

        

Summertime is hot here in the south  so I am glad we play our 3v3 in June rather than in the hotter July or August months.  Temperatures topped 90 which explains the multiple tents set up around the parameter of the field providing much needed relief from the the sun during breaks from games for players and parents.  From one view it did look like a miniature tent city.

 

As part of the fundraiser an a sundry of items were readily available for purchase and club volunteers grilled hotdogs and hamburgers on site all day.  In addition there were past years festival t-shirts and car magnets for sale and plenty of ice cold water and drinks. Each year donations of outgrown cleats and shin guards are collected and this year the donated  items will be contributed to a local church’s mission trip to Honduras and given to Honduran children.

 

Mid-day we had the shoot-out where players attempted to score one on one with the goal from a designated position. Winners received a new soccer ball and / or a Tony’s Ice Cream gift card.  Proud of my little one for winning a gift card and all festival participants received a new official 3v3 t-shirt.

 

The tagline for my blog is “boys on the field, all the time” but that is because I have two sons who love to play soccer.  SGCSA supports both girls and boys with our Hurricanes and our Flames comprising each team of either all girls or all boys.

         

As games staggered throughout the day families and players meandered around the field, or took a quick break before their next match to escape the heat.  Having a player in two different age groups meant that we were going to be on the sultry field for most of the day.   We did find a time slot where both of  boys and their respective teams had enough free time to partake in the generous hospitality of the Boyd Family so we piled in a few cars and head a short distance down the road to the Boyd’s home and their gloriously refreshing swimming pool.

         

This was just the break our boys needed to cool down and reduce their body temperatures back to normal.  Big-hearted and generous the Boyd’s seemed to produce enough colorful towels, extra swim suits and cold drinks for each boy big and small.  Thank you to our hosts for having so many boys overtake your pool and patio on such short notice!

       

The day was a success for all of us and my only suggestion for next year’s festival would be to have a misting station where children and parents could cool down from the heat!  Thanks to all of the participating families and to SGCSA!

Yearly Tryouts~

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Beautiful afternoon and early evening at Poston Park tonight.  Full swing, children everywhere, soccer balls galore in every size and color.   The short break we had over the past two weeks has been great but the boys were ready to get their game on again! So many children with so much talent all in one place was a happy site.  Thrilled that the children would much rather be on a soccer field than in front of a monitor.

We had clear blue skies; love the debth of the clouds~

We had beautiful babies in their little red wagons~

We had big boys waiting to show their stuff~

And on the way home we even had oil cars and box cars.  But no little red caboose!

Good Luck To You Boys One and All!