My U11 Girls team had one last hurrah at the NC State Games last weekend, and you just knew there would be a few Tales From The Lunachick Fringe!
The NC State Games are a huge annual amatuer sporting event styled after the Olympics, including opening ceremonies. The youth soccer tournament is only one of dozens of events, but attracts teams from across the state. So we were excited to be going as our last event together as a U11 team. The girls did well, reaching the bronze medal match, but that’s not what this post is about! It’s about the fun that ensues when the Lunachicks play soccer!
We decided to take the girls to the opening ceremonies since they were only about 30 minutes away. One of the parents was able to get a large van for the weekend, so we piled four adults and ten players into it for the trip to the opening ceremonies, saving some gas expense. As we were leaving the parking lot to begin our trip, one of the girls yells out “Let’s sing!”, followed by ten girls singing ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’. The parents groaned and one of my assistants said “No! Anything but that!”
Rookie. “The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round…”
The ceremonies were fun, including a performance by The Bouncing Bulldogs jumprope team and The Skyriders trampoline team. One of the things the Bouncing Bulldogs do is line up 8 or so jumpers, shoulder to shoulder and bouncing in unison, while someone swings the rope from behind, moving down the line. Very cool. And the Lunachicks were paying attention.
Fast forward to Sunday. An opponent gets tangled up with one of our defenders right outside the top of the box – direct kick. So our girls setup a wall… and start jumping. In unison. And chanting “It’s not going in! It’s not going in!” Trust me when I say we’ve never practiced or encouraged this. But it was one of the funnier things I’ve ever seen in a soccer match. Thankfully the kick went wide and the referee had a good sense of humor!
There were photographers taking action shots of many matches, including two of ours. These pictures will only be up until mid July, but if you read this before then, there are some neat sequences. Click the arrows to flip through each sequence (usually 8-10 shots):
- Here is one of my players heading the ball a bit too low on her head, towards an opponent, and then looking determined to get the ball. What a look!
- This is what you get when one of your players, who is a dancer, scores and celebrates with her sister, who is also a dancer. Soccer Dance!
- This is a great sequence of the players pursuing a mishandled corner kick. SO close.
In the end, there wasn’t too much mayhem. Among the players that is. Word from the parents is they had more fun than the girls did and are now The Lunachick Fringe Unhinged!
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June 24th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Wow, what great pictures! Looks like a lot of fun out there.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:35 am
We had a lot of fun. It was hot, but the girls played very hard. Highlight of the tournament was facing a team that beat us by five goals in the Fall. It was a battle of a match that likely would have gone to a penalty shootout, but a save squirted out of our goalie’s hands and we couldn’t clear it out fast enough. So we lost 1-2. But the girls proved they had come a long way since the Fall. The last ten minutes were so exciting as our girls tried so hard to tie things up.