Soccer Days and Nights

4-25-16

If I sound incoherent it may be due to the horrible cold/allergies I am dealing with right now. I am guessing between being in sun all weekend, cheering at multiple soccer games (about 6 games worth) and dealing with the crazy wind and other weather factors I am all honked up. My throat is currently on fire, which I suppose isn’t too bad being that I haven’t had to deal with this in some time. I used to deal with sore throats all the dang time, so I am trying to stay positive. I didn’t end up doing my workout this morning due to how crappy I feel. I most likely will take off tomorrow as well, which although sucks, I don’t need to get worse.

It was a full soccer weekend for sure. Dax ended up playing a total of 4 games, two on each day. The first game was truly the best, and not just because they won. They had a come from behind win, with Dax rockin a hat trick. The team lost the other 3 games, which was a bummer, but I could see so much improvement in their play. Sadly, on Saturday it was just a tough break. Sunday, well, that was a different story.

Our first game Sunday morning looked to be a good match. Both teams were fairly even, which is excellent. Stressful, but I prefer a close match compared to either team winning by blow out. And truly, it started like a good game. There were some questionable calls, but you kind of expect this. Sadly, it would get worse.

By mid second quarter, our ref had crossed the line of professional referee into horrible, bad man-bun flaunting jackass. A call was made, which was questioned by our assistant coach, Pepe. Coaches question calls all the time, and for the most part, it is almost part of the game. As long as they are respectful of it and don’t go stupid, referees tend to be fine with answering a question. Man-Bun was not one of these referees. At one point, when Pepe questioned the call, he dismissed Pepe and then turned to the A/R and twirled his finger around his ear in a, “this dude is a wack job” motion. So because of this, at the end of the first quarter, our coach, JJ, asked to approach the ref indicating this was very disrespectful. Once again, our coach was dismissed and he didn’t even entertain his complaint.

Second quarter starts and another call happens that Pepe questions. Without warning, Man-Bun simply waves his hand over at him and says, “Bye Bye” and says nothing else. This is in front of the entire game. The standard way a center ref should handle a send off is not by doing this. Pepe leaves in disgust when they were setting up for this free kick due to the bad call. JJ indicates that the foul took place closer to the other side, when Man-Bun then does the same thing to JJ. Mind you, Pepe can be hot headed, but not JJ. If anything, he was being incredibly polite and nice about the whole thing, even trying to calm Pepe down. The dismissive nature of how the ref handled this was horrible. Plus, he effectively frazzled our team by kicking out our main coaches.

At the time, I thought the other team seemed to be handling all of this respectfully. Sadly, I found out after that the coach had actually ran up to Ken who was doing field monitoring by the field and got up in his face and started yelling and saying that our team needed to now forfeit because we had no coaches. Mind you, we had not only Ken as a certified coach on our team, we had Dan and myself, all of whom stepped up, who could handle this. It was so incredibly tacky.

Our team was upset. Not only were there 3 super bad calls, all of those particular calls resulted in the other team scoring. At one point, there was a handling situation on the other team that the A/R called and Man-Bun called it off. After this, the A/R mentioned it to Man-Bun, who then said that he saw it but oh well. He actively didn’t give us a call simply because he decided our team was evil.

This ref ruined Man-Bun for me

Man-Bun’s actions didn’t go unnoticed by our boys. Many were confused, some angry. It was truly the downfall of the game for us. Sure, if perhaps they were older they could just let this bullshit roll off of them, but these are 9 year olds. They don’t have that ability to just let things go like that. It was truly heartbreaking.

At the end of the game, I found out later that when our team went to go say good game to the players (who were never an issue) and the coach along with the two A/R’s, many of them opted to avoid thanking Man-Bun, including Dax. I was torn at first on this, but ultimately I am ok with this. It is a silent protest that these boys opted to do on their own in solidarity with their coaches. I understand this is probably not a popular opinion, but these boys know how they played. They know how their coaches are. They understand that there were injustices done and by allowing them that small amount of control, I think it is better in the grand scheme of things.

I was shocked at how outraged Bobby was on the team’s behalf. He was livid with Man-Bun, practically calling for his head on a stick. Later in the day while he, JJ, Dan and myself were manning the volunteer food tent, Man-Bun came up to get his sandwich. I opted to walk away, not trusting myself to be cordial to this man. Dan, was super nice, which was probably a better way to handle it. After Man-Bun left, Bobby tells us all we should have told him we don’t serve his kind here. JJ almost dropped his sandwich from laughing so much. It was awesome.

Said kind would be A-Hole Man-Bun guy

Sadly, the last game, although incredibly hard fought was lost in overtime. Dax scored a total of 7 goals in 4 games, which was the bulk of the 10 goals we scored as a team. He played all 4 games without being pulled once, which was surprising. I know that JJ relies on him a great deal, and perhaps he is making up for the fact that Dax had to sit on the sideline for 6 weeks. I can appreciate that, and really, this tournament was incredible to see how much more aggressive he has become as a player. He uses his body like a battering ram, and still plays the ball therefore doing legal plays with force. He even seems to have gotten back his speed as he ran down this one player several times, which was quite an accomplishment. This particular player was quite good, and the two of them sparred quite a bit during the match, and this was the last game for both kids. The other kid had more breaks, but Dax didn’t and still frustrated the hell out of him. During a quarter break, Dax mentioned he felt bad for having kicked a ball square in the kid’s stomach super hard (it was blocked by the other kid, so it wasn’t on purpose or anything). I told him next time kick it hard enough to knock the kid’s glasses off, which resulted in a rare laugh during a game from him. He smiles a lot after a goal, but it was nice to get him laughing at something like that.

The weekend should have been a little less hectic, however, the tournament wasn’t quite staffed the way it needed to be. Mind you, all of said staff is just volunteers. Unfortunately, the field we were at was being run by our region. And ultimately, the handful of people who tend to help out, were located at different fields because their kid/team were playing elsewhere. I didn’t know until Friday night that Ken was handling the referee check in tent. Next thing I know, I started being volun-told to do more and more things. I wasn’t happy about this in the least. It meant I kept disappointing my own boys, the people I help out the region for. I don’t like it when I have to do region stuff over the comfort of my boys. On Sunday, when I had planned on taking Bobby home he got stuck at the field with me handing out those sandwiches to the likes of Man-Bun. He was miserable, I felt horrible, and it was one of those days that frustrated the hell out of me. Our team was asked to help even more (Yes, a $200 refund was being offered) but I didn’t hear of the other two Region 15 teams being asked to help out. That angered me even more. I felt taken advantage of on so many levels. When I had to go get the food, that truly was the last straw. Once again, I am looking to figure out how to no longer be a part of the board.

This week looks to be interesting. I have a day off on Thursday in order to attend Bobby’s play at school. It will also allow me to clean the house for Saturday’s party. Ken’s birthday is that day and we are doing game night after a full day of registration. On the plus side, my boys are able to stay home for the day, which will be good downtime. They also get to go to Harry Potter land with my folks on Friday since they don’t have school. I had planned on going to see Keanu with Ken, but I am unsure when my parents will be dropping them off so it might not happen, which is a bummer.

Dax has practice twice this week along with track tryouts. We have a soccer game Sunday. Thursday comes with a play, watching track tryouts, cleaning house, waiting for a pool delivery, going to a 5th grade fun day planning meeting and then making sure the boys have overnight bags to go to Gramma’s. I may need a week off soon.