San Diego Cup 2013

I had a great weekend coaching my 12u Girls in the San Diego Cup. We decided as a club that we were going to enter all levels in an upper division, so my 12u's (6th graders)played in the 14u (8th Grade) division. We played awesome! Our team ended up going 4-1 in the tournament, beating SoCal, pacific, diablo, and del mar. We learned in 1 weekend what may have taken 6 months to learn. Not because I don't teach these skills but because we have never really had the opportunity to apply it against older, stronger, more physical opponents. We didn't only apply what we had practiced but we got better at it from the 1st to the last game. Guarding 2 meters has been a big emphasis of mine and if my memory serves me correct I don't think we allowed any team to score more than 6 goals (except the game we lost 9-5). The game of the weekend for me had to be the game vs Del Mar, we were down early 2-0, we were physically getting beat up including a head butt to Palmers face that forced the ref to call an injury timeout, and forced her to sit for half a quarter. We kept battling and started countering harder, making better decisions, and played our tempo. It came down to 16 seconds left in the game, we were up 7-6, Del Mar coach called a t/o so I knew they were going to run a drive from the 1, 2 side. My defensive line-up was Alyssa (goalie), Hannah C., Hannah P., Nicca, Amanda, Taylor, and a new girl that started playing a month ago, Malia. It was by far the biggest situation she had ever been in...trial by fire. I told the girls, IF they get beat on the drive, wing needs to pick up the driver. They ran a drive from 2 and Taylor who was playing x1 jumped into the lane and telegraphed the pass for the steal, protected the ball, passed it to the goalie and ran the clock out. Very gratifying. I see the trust forming, I see the accountability increasing, I see the fear dying, and the confidence building. Next up JO quals...we have improved every tournament. I like that trend.