Fall Soccer

...And we're back at Grattan field for Jellyfish practice!  It was a little touch-and-go after the spring season, but Lucie and her friends (and the moms) managed to talk Daddy into another round of coaching.  Even better, it's GIRLS ONLY!  Which has made getting the kids to practice much easier - they are all super-excited to go, and they keep pretty good tabs on each other in the after school program.  However, I'm not sure this translates to any improved behavior AT practice.

It was also interesting to see how the more experienced girls became much more aggressive players once the boys were out of the mix.

Brennan is back for another season with the Gorillas.  Almost all their games were in Golden Gate Park, at the Beach Chalet fields, which is nice because it's on turf and generally has parking.

Also there's plenty of open space for the little siblings to terrorize each other in the trees and shrubs.

The boys are still in one of the tougher brackets for Rec teams, so they had some tough games and not a lot of wins.  But they stayed positive, were (mostly) kind and supportive of each other, and thanks to their coaches, practice good sportsmanship.  They were rewarded with 2 decisive wins for their last 2 games, and a fun post-season party at the Park Chalet.

The games keep weekends pretty busy, but we fit in a Sunday trip to Healdsburg, since Fall is such a warm and pretty time up there.  I'm glad we went - just a week later, the devastating fires hit multiple areas of Sonoma and Napa counties.  Even in San Francisco, the air quality was bad enough to cancel the school Film Fest, multiple soccer practices and games, even recess.  Luckily, the fire crews were able to contain the fires before they spread to the Healdsburg area.

In addition to youth soccer, there was a fair amount of pro soccer, with the new San Francisco Deltas team playing just down the hill at Kezar Stadium.   Daddy arranged for both teams to be game ambassadors - they got to play games on the pitch and walk the players out for the national anthem.

Here are the girls:

The other team was Canadian, so I got spend two entire national anthems worrying that my child was one of the ones giggling and whispering to each other at the center of the lineup.  Then I put my glasses on and realized it was Rosa.

We also lucked out with a complimentary upgrade to the VIP seats, so Brennan & I got to watch the game in these funny little clear plastic clamshells on the sidelines, and have a delicious Filipino chicken dinner instead of a lukewarm stadium hot dog.

A few weeks later, the boys got their turn:

We even convinced cousin Ian to spend a night shivering in the fog.

Generally, a lot school and neighborhood friends could be found there, so there wasn't a lot of actual game watching going on.  Mostly it was running up, down, and around the stadium, and showing up to pester adults for cash just about at the point I'd decided they'd been abducted.  It was sort of graduate level seminar in Free Range Parenting, and I don't think I've graduated from Free Range Parenting high school yet.

Anyway, we survived everyone's season.  Due to various weather and air issues, the end of the Jellyfish season was a little...nebulous.  Since they didn't get to have a sweets and medals ceremony at what turned out to be their last game, it was pushed to their final practice. 

The coaches took the players out to celebrate at their sponsor's business - the Ice Cream Bar!