The End is in Sight

The last two weeks of the girls' soccer season always fly by. We come back from spring break, there is usually a game or two to make up from postponements earlier in the season, so those are crammed in with our regularly scheduled games, plus practice on any open days. Throw in the fact I also have to work my regular job and we are at the end of April before you know it.

The end of this season is especially bittersweet, because not only will we be saying good bye to a great bunch of seniors, but also to one of whom is my daughter, Emily. When it comes down to it, Emily is the reason I got into coaching soccer in the first place 10 1/2 years ago. When she was seven, she came home from soccer practice and said they were going to need another coach for her age group, because there were so many kids. I went to the next practice and thought to myself, "this could be fun." Then, as they say, the rest is history. The other thing that will be hard about saying good bye to these seniors is that they were freshmen when I started coaching at the high school, so we have been together all four years that I have been with the program. Their commitment and desire was a key factor to our success this season.

The girls actually finished out the season with some strong performances against the top teams in our league. These teams will likely be contending for the state title this year and the way the girls performed shows how much our program has improved this year. We finished with our best record ever, scored more goals than we ever have before, allowed fewer goals than ever, and had a great time doing it! We will have our end of season banquet next week, where there will be plenty of laughter and tears. Thanks girls!

Countdown to spring break

(I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but got caught up with work, coaching soccer and thinking about my pending trip to Florida for spring break.)

I have to get my taxes done!

Sometimes this job can be an emotional roller coaster. Take yesterday (Tuesday, April 1) for example...

I got to the office and was promptly notified that there had been a serious car accident with a fatality and the rumor was that the victim was the principal of one of the local elementary schools. I got to the scene around an hour after the accident, but the cars involved were still there and the amount of damage was incredible. By this time it was confirmed that the victim was indeed the principal of Fraser Valley Elementary School, so I headed to the school to see what I could find.

This is the second staff member the local school district has lost this school year in an auto accident. In the fall, a teacher at the high school was killed on her way to work, so this was all too familiar and very depressing.

On the flip side, I spent the evening with one of the candidates for mayor here in Granby. When I walked into the bar she and her supporters were gathered at, her supporters immediately thought she had won because I was there. I had to assure them that I was only there, because their candidate had a good chance to win, not that I had any information on the results. It turned into a long night and eventually the candidate, her family and a small group of supporters went to her home to wait on word from town hall. When she finally received official word at 11:35 p.m., despite it being a long day for me, I was glad I had stuck it out and was happy with the image I got.

Turning to the world of soccer, our girls had an amazing game on Monday, March 31, defeating Bishop Machebeuf 7-6. Our girls were down 5-2 at one point and staged an amazing rally in the second half to comeback for the win. In past years, it would be easy for the team to lose hope, but not this year. They never gave up and ended up beating a team they had never beat before. The win also put us at the top of our league, temporarily, which was an added bonus.

The following Thursday, we had another home game scheduled, but our home field is still covered with snow, so the game was moved to Denver. All of the snow we received over the winter and spring, along with the fact that we just haven't had much warm, sunny weather to melt that snow, is making it look more and more like we aren't going to be having any home games this season. We played St. Mary's Academy, a team that has given us fits the past few years. We had trouble getting our offense on track, but our defense held its own giving up just one goal in a 1-0 loss to a team that had beaten us 8-0 and 7-0 in the past two years. It is encouraging to see how much more competitive we are this season.



This brings us to spring break. I'm heading to Florida with my son to visit my parents. Some warm weather and the beach will be a welcome break from the winter weather here in Colorado.