Off To Madison

  The schedules came out for the Madison tournament and I don't know very much about the teams that we will be playing.  I looked at the teams that are down at JFG and I would have liked to play against a couple of the teams that are down there like: KC Select Scream, KC Legends, Toro Bulldogs, and the BVSC Stars but things didn't work out that way.  

As a club, we usually have our teams play against the other top Regional teams right away to see where our teams are at.  Last year I took the U12's down to the NSR Cup over Memorial Day and this year Mark's U12's went to the Eclipse event.  Great competition at each event, especially the Eclipse event. This year, with the U13's, I wanted to try out a different plan and have the girls play against some teams who I felt that we would have success against and be able to implement the style of play that I am looking for.

Last year with our U10 group I took this approach because I really did not think they were ready to play against U11 C2 teams at the start of the year so we registered them for some U11 C3 tournaments.  During our first two tournaments at C3 the girls were able to be confident on the ball, learn how to move as a team, and learn how to pass the ball really well.  After the first two tournaments we moved them into C2 tournaments and they were able to do the same things against the bigger and better athletes.   As I looked back I am confident in my assessment that they were not ready to play C2 during week 1 of the season but by week 3 they were one of the top teams at every event they went to at the C2 level.  

As I thought about my approach to this season with the U13's, I decided that teaching the girls our style of play and letting them have success at the beginning of the year would help us to play at a higher level in the long run.  My logic for this is that if I can get the girls focussing on our style rather than being pushed to our limits, battling and scrapping, that when we start to play against the teams where we will be pushed we will be better prepared since we will have a good idea of what we want to do as a team.

So I laid out our plan to scrimmage over Labor Day here in town, follow that up with our first tournament being against decent regional competition but not an event that was packed with all top teams, and then finish the fall against a lot of top teams at the Sockers event.    

Not being able to go to JFG was a bummer because the teams that I mentioned above were going to be perfect for this weekend, but I feel that I can still accomplish my same goal of teaching our style of play in Madison.  With saying all of that I know that just because the teams that we are playing don't have a big reputation they can still be very good and I am hoping that they are.

It will be a busy weekend for me with the 3 teams.  Luckily I have Mark Cook helping me out and the weather forecast is perfect so I am excited to go.

Schedules

Saturday    

9:00 AM    Nike vs Tosa on Reddan 12 

10:00 AM    U12 White vs MKSC on Field BP 2 

12:00 PM    Swoosh vs ASC Fire on Field 7 

1:00 PM    Nike vs Heartland on Field 12 

3:00 PM    U12 White vs Kenosha on Field Reddan D 

3:45 PM    Swoosh vs Peawaukee on field 7 

Sunday    

8:15 AM    Swoosh vs Mt Horeb on Field 4

9:00 AM    Nike vs Brookfield on Field 12 

12:00 PM    U13 Final

12:15 PM    U12 White vs Waunakee on BP1 

3:00 PM    U12 White Semi Final 

5:00 PM    U12 White Final