Soccer on ice

On Saturday the sports ground at the primary school was spectacularly iced over. The sun was doing a fine job where it reached, but two thirds of both fields were white and hard as concrete, as the school sits in a valley shaded by a steep rise on the north side. Tony the coach had the fine idea to move the goals south, into as much of the sun as possible, and extend the line markings with orange cones. The resultant field was pretty small but the game went on.

I was very proud of Marcus this week as he took things in his stride that had upset him a few weeks ago. He was substituted, slipped over and hurt himself, copped a few kicks and even scored an own goal, without letting it ruffle him.

South Hobart had a good win. One of my favourite players is David, who is a natural defender. I really admire the way he goes about it, and I said so to his grandfather a few weeks ago. On Saturday David's mother came over while Marcus was having a spell on the bench to talk to him, and I was delighted with what she had to say. Although Marcus is by far the main goalscorer, she said they love to watch him play because his anticipation is so good, he really knows how to get the ball, and really knows what to do next. He will always get praise for scoring, so I really value the praise that the other parts of his game receive.

After the game we had a sausage in bread each and watched the end of the u/9s. Unfortunately South Hobart were thumped by the Cygnet Seadragons. The Seadragons were very happy, got in a circle and launched into their club song. There was a rousing verse I couldn't make out followed by a chorus that ended with "...and our is aim is to win!" No objections there. The second verse commenced. Chorus. A third verse. I marvelled that they all seemed to know the words. The grown-up coach was enjoying it as much as anyone - I guessed he may have been the composer. Finally we had the chorus one more time. I was starting to question the healthiness of their aim by that stage.