Week 5 Fall 2007

Week 5 of the Fall 2007 season has come and gone. So far the season has been pretty good, yes there have been some problems. But nothing like seasons past.

May as well start off with something that happened during the first games on Saturday. Yes, the Patterson humor. I think (hope) most of us know there are door latches on the Patterson's. But there are some folks out there that do not. While I was in the parking lot, I looked over and saw a lady running toward the Patterson's, she opened the first door and surprised a little girl sitting down. She quickly closed the door. The lady moved over to another one, pulled the door open (the green dot was showing) only to surprise a gentleman standing. She moved over one more and slowly opened the door and peeked inside, the coast was clear and she went in. As she was walking back to the fields, I asked her "Do you think some folks don't know what the door latch is for?" She laughed and said a couple of folks don't.

OK, now, this is Fall and it is October, so why is it almost 90 degrees outside. It was a hot day at the fields, several teams took water breaks, especially in the U14/U16/U19 divisions.

The few referees I saw, where looking drained. Between doing 4 or 5 games and the heat it was getting to them. We really need all our referees to come out and do just 1 game on Saturday. There were several "scrimmages" this week. I did have one parent ask if we could have the referee course date set by registration. I told him the first class this season, there was 3 weeks notice, and only 4 folks showed up. I did have a parent complain about a youth referee. I asked her if she wanted to take the referee course. She told me her son was a Certified Referee, and had done state championships. I told her he was welcome to come out and referee games. She said she would tell him. While we talking, it came out that her son is certified... in softball. Well a referee is a referee, guess we could train him if he comes out. Our Mr. Lister was back, he did 5 or 6 games. I finally told him to stop and rest, he can not do all the games by himself. Thanks to Mike Moody who st epped up and did a U14, U16 and several other games. Bill Mize did the U19 game at 1:00 and it was a very good game. Randy Chapell was at the fields he was watching a referee that wants to advance. Randy is a National Referee and can give a lot of good advice to referees wanting to advance. Randy is a referee and coach from years ago. I played many a good U10 game against him. One game I remember, because it was the only goal we scored all season. Randys keeper kicked the ball in his own goal while trying to punt it out. We still lost 2 -1 but it was great. We had a special guest at the fields, David and Martha Holt brought their granddaughter to see the games. They went down and watched some of the U6 games. I forgot her name, I remember she had pretty blue eyes. She seemed to enjoy watching the games while "Grandpa" held her. I asked David it he would be coaching a U6 team in a couple of years, "we'll see". Once AYSO is in your blood, your hooked. It is hard to wal k away.

The concession stand was selling a lot of snow-cones, there was a line most of the day. Several coaches have found snow-cones to be a great after game treat.

The security officer was alerted to a possible problem. Seems a couple that had split up (divorced) were not seeing eye to eye. Never mind their child was playing, they had to get into it. The officer made his presence known and things stayed calm.

I passed out more of the coach kits, I still have a few to go. Mike Goins (RC R124) brought his U16 team to play. We had a player injured, but she is OK. All the paper work was completed. She was able to walk after keeping her leg elevated and iced during her sisters U14 game.

I was told the final score was 2 - 0 in favor on Mikes team.

The fields are still looking good, the grass is still green and I think they are in the best shape they have ever been in.

We had 3 or 4 soccer balls that lost their owners, maybe they will come back next week and take them home. We also had reports of keys, a cell phone and a ipod left at the fields. If they get turned in, we will return them.

Well we have 3 weeks left in the Fall season, I will see you on the fields again next week. Oh I did hear the long range forecast, it is suppost to be 50 degrees next week. We'll see!