Soccer Champions!

The LYC spring soccer season came to a close this morning.  Cameron's team played its way into the championship game by beating two teams pretty soundly.  This morning's match was against the "best team in the league" according to one of the soccer refs.  Meg and I were pretty confident that Cameron would be able to pull off a victory.  That is because the Heinisch family has watched Doug coach over the years, are used to his style of coaching, and believe that he is the "best coach in the league."

Doug's main goal in soccer for his teams (besides having fun) is to teach the players positions, how to hold them during the game, and how to pass.  These are skills that good players need to develop, and Doug believes that every child should play every position to learn as much as they can about the game.  Thus, during the regular season his best players have to play as much defense as offense.  Everyone that is capable takes a turn at goalie, and all players play an equal amount.  All get to take a goal kick, a throw-in and if possible a penalty kick.  I enjoy watching his teams develop, learn to play as teammates and most importantly encourage one another.  It is not that they do not want to win, but learning the game is the priority.

Tournament play is different.  At that point, Doug puts his players in the positions that they play best.  His strongest kickers take the penalty and goal kicks, the best goalies don the role as keeper, and those who have a strong arm take the throw-ins.  Everyone still plays the same amount of time and, win or lose, it is a team effort.

Today's team was ready for the challenge.  Everyone participated and encouraged one another.  If a player went down injured, they all took a knee.  When Cameron had a hand ball in goal that led to a score, no one got on him.  They just pulled themselves together and chipped one in to take the lead 3-2.  Even the boys that love to only play halfback, knew that they had to band together as fullbacks to stop a last minute charge from their opponents.

When the whistle blew there were a lot of cheers.  Cameron's team was victorious, and there is a new soccer trophy on the awards shelf.  Each one of the Heinisch children can now say that they have won a LYC championship tournament.  Over the 14 years that Doug has been coaching them, there have been a lot more loses than wins.  Today, however, we celebrate that the "best team" did win and know that another season of growing and learning can also be added to the trophy shelf.