Fall soccer wrap-up

 Last Saturday marked the last soccer game of the season for these two ridiculously cute boys.

 

Here's Clyde's (un)official team picture with the Avengers. I know I said it before, but we really lucked out with this team; it was such a great experience for Clyde. We're excited for the spring season to kick off next April! 

 

Clyde played really well in this last game and scored a couple goals (possibly three, who's counting? ... Obviously it wasn't me).

 So this shot's kind of blurry, but that is definitely Clyde on the ground over there. Can't wait until he's older and that kind of move from the other team gets us a penalty kick!

 Of course, when he's older there might not be adorable games of leapfrog happening on the sidelines, so I guess we don't want him to grow up too quickly...

 We put together a little thank you note and gift for Coach Rob, and this is Clyde shyly giving it to him after the game :). 

 

 And here's Will's (un)official team picture with the Scoring Rockets!

All signs point to Will retiring from soccer now, which is a shame since he looks SO. DANG. CUTE. in his little uniform. Sigh.

 Buuuut ultimately soccer held little to no interest for our Willy-boy, and I think this picture illustrates that - his expression clearly says, "Yeah, you better get a good shot of me kicking this ball during warm-up because it's the last time I have any intention of getting near it for the next hour. Suckers."

 He did play for the first few minutes of Saturday's game, and even got right in the middle of the action for a bit before opting to head back to the sidelines and Grandma Izatt's comfy chair. Will's excited to spend the free time he'll enjoy post-retirement exploring other activities and athletic pursuits; fall swimming lessons have already begun, yay!

  Both happily and sadly, Will's retirement means Coach Jana's retirement as well. Mostly sad because I think I finally hit on what could have been my signature 'coaching outfit' here - a la Bill Belichick's cut-off sweatshirts, only slightly classier.

A tender coaching moment as I get my kids ready to start the game. I LOVED this little team.

Chuck's parents were in town for the last game (more on that later) and sweetly took lots of pictures of me coaching. As I flipped through them I realized that I spent probably 88% of the games up in the air: 

 exhibit A

 exhibit B

 

 exhibit C

And yes, I am celebrating Elizabeth's goal even though one of my players is lying on the ground clutching his knee....

 but I promise I hurried over to him immediately after I ceased to be airborne. It should also be noted that my kids were champion floppers and half the time they went to the ground it was after contact with absolutely nothing besides their own feet.

 

 Here's a fun rundown of what I looked like watching Garrett make an awesome breakaway towards the goal and then miss at the last minute.

 A closer look at those last three frames...

 Luckily Garrett rallied back and scored on the next play to end the game, woo!

 

 In order to leave a lasting impression on my cute players, I made them cupcakes and wrote them each a card highlighting their individual strengths and how much fun I had with them. Since I'll only have coached for two seasons before retiring, I figure my best chance of getting into some sort of pee-wee soccer coaching hall of fame is via bribery.

Our soccer season wrap-up wouldn't be complete without acknowledging our boys' awesome fans - poor Jack sat through sooo many practices and games, bless his heart. Don't worry Jack, your time will come! (and Coach Jana may even come out of retirement at that point....)

We were so glad that Pops and Grandma Izatt could be here for our last games to watch Clyde and Will in action!

And of course a shout-out to Grandma Pam who made it to almost every game and was frequently recruited to chase Will as he wandered around the soccer fields. Thanks Mama!