The Turkey Tournament

Congratulations to Eden Prairie, the first winner of Turkey Tournament prize.

The weekend was meant to be spent in Des Moines at the Just For Girls event, but life gave us some lemons Friday afternoon and canceled the event due to weather. Needless to say we were all disappointed, but we rallied together to compete and have fun in our own little tourney.

It turned out to be great weekend full of some of the best teams in Minnesota at the U12 age group. I'm sure all the families, girls, coaches and referee's were glad to have the opportunity to be part of such a fun event. The icing on the cake was the opportunity for all the girls involved to enjoy ice cream cake with each team after the games.

The day was filled with some intense matchups as Burnsville and Eden Prairie played each other twice today with Eden Prairie winning on the only goal in the 35th minute of the Championship game. Wow!

The tournament prize was a plastic Turkey on a stick! Eden Prairie will carry the the Turkey until either Edina, Burnsville or Bangu takes it from them during the regular season or post season. What a great way to keep the rivalries fresh!

Here are the final game results:

Sunday
Bangu vs Eden Prairie 0-2
Burnsville vs Eden Prairie 3-1
Bangu vs Edina 1-3
3rd Place Game
Bangu vs Edina 0-3
1st Place Game
Burnsville vs Eden Prairie 0-1

Thanks so much to everyone who helped put the tournament together, it was a great lemonade!

Day 1 of JFG Rained Out Version 2.08

Day 1 is complete with the only hitch made by myself ultimately costing my team a chance to tie our game. I called the game with 5 minutes remaining totally messing up our chances. Oh well, it just reinforces the old saying, "players win games and coaches lose them."

We had some great games, lots of enthusiasm from both the parents and the players! Way to go.

Burnsville -----6pts--- 1W------ 1L------ 3GS------ 3GA
Eden Prairie--- 5pts-- 1W------ 0L----- 1GS------ 0GA
Edina----------- 5pts ---1W -----1L----- 2GS -----2GA
Bangu--------- 1pt -----0W------ 1L----- 1GS----- 2GA

Tournament Scoring: 3pts for a win, 1 pt for tie, 1 pt for each goal up to 3 and 1 point for each shutout.

We found the trophy. It's great fun and a good humored trophy. After all soccer should be fun, right? We also have coordinated ice cream cakes for every team as an end of tournament thank you for participating. After the 3rd place game, ice cream will be served in the conference room from 3:15-4:00 and after the 1st place game there will be another ice cream cake for both teams to share from 4pm to 4:35

I've told my players that I always played my heart out against every team. I was a fierce competitor but once I crossed the line to come off the field I was best friends with all of them and would go out after the game and have a good time with the same players I was pushing and pulling. I try to reinforce that with my girls as much as possible so I hope they all enjoy the ice cream afterwards. So thank you, and we'll see you on the pitch!

When the weather outside is frightful...improvise

My mother always said I was resourceful, my wife says I'm stubborn. I guess they both go hand in hand when you have to improvise.

As I heard Cheryl tell me that our tournament was canceled the wheels began turning. I grabbed my iPod(full of all my contacts) and then I grabbed my MacBook (actually Sarah F. pulled it from my bag) and I began calling dome managers.

Andy at Burnsville said he had 6.5 hours! Wow, we'd get our choice, okay who to call? I checked the teams heading down to Iowa. Wow! There was some good competition going there. So I called them, Cheryl got me names and numbers from her cozy office and within two and half hours we had three teams. Michael F. helped figure out times and how to break out the slots and away we go! So...

We're having our own Just For Girls the Rained Out Version!!

Eden Prairie, Edina, Burnsville and Bangu C1 girls teams will have three round robin games and a third place and first place game to decide the first ever winner of the mysterious trophy!!! (yet to be found and decided upon)

What's ironic about the whole thing is that I'm always saying how I hate tournaments. I think they're a waste of time, a poor tool for player development and put too much stress on players and families. I think I said this to Leigh F. as we were leaving. Ironic how I then end up organizing one on the way back?!

But I think there's something to look at here. We have four great clubs and teams focusing on 6.5 hours of playing soccer within several hours of commitment for each family. You still get the mornings off and you're not waiting around for five to six hours for another chance to play.

After everything was completed I had a fantasy that we could even break it apart even more and have both teams play small sided games on each half where each team splits and forms two teams so that we get even more development, but I'm not sure we're there as a soccer culture yet. Nor do I think I have the energy to go that extra mile.

In our case, we were driving 3.5 hours (depending on who's driving) to go play two Minnesota teams anyways and spending how many hundreds of dollars for each family? This way each family is spending less than $30 bucks for the whole event. ( minus hot dogs, candy, lunch, etc.)

If I was crazy enough and not as sick as I am I would have organized a sleepover and a pool party to boot, but there's only so much I can do!

So here's the tourney, the schedule and the games. I'll try to update the scores as we go along. It's my first tournament as the organizer, so wish me and my team luck!

Download Here

JFG Preparation leads to ?....? Performance

Get ready to go to Des Moines!! Yipee!! At least it's going to be sunny!! (Forecast)

So when Heather found out that we're going to Iowa she bought tickets to go to Palm Desert for the weekend....hmmm am I missing something?

Either way I'd rather coach your daughters than golf and swim any day!

Also, I've been hearing rumors there's a party group amongst the parents. We'll just have to wait and see who they are!

Here's our Just For Girls itinerary: Download Here.

This has the weekend schedule and maps to the hotel from Lakeville, from the hotel to the field and our tournament schedule with field map. It also has a packing list for the girls and my expectations of their behavior during the tourney. There are also some nutrition suggestions for those late risers in the morning. Please ask them to read through the itinerary.

Meals: I have organized a brunch from Brueggar's Bagels after our first game on Saturday. We need a volunteer to go pick up the order and bring them back to the fields. I've ordered 15 cheese and egg bagels and 15 cheese, egg and ham bagels, along with 2 dozen bagels with cream cheese for families and the girls. Let me know if this is enough, you may want to bring your own lunch as well, but the time frame of getting healthy food in the girls' stomachs is tight.

Lunch: Option to cater from Olive Garden cost around $7-10 per person or is this too much pasta for people? Right now, it's lunch on your own.

The Butler's have reserved space at Spaghetti Works downtown for Saturday Night.
Goto Google Maps for all locations here.

Times: I don't expect everyone to be there by 8pm Friday night but if the girls can be in bed by 10pm we'll have a chance for Saturday breakfast. We'll meet in the lobby for a goal planning session and a fun game at 8pm Friday Night. Absolutely no swimming Friday.

For the ride to Iowa: I want all the girls to review the restart portion of the Learning Packet. I will have a short quiz for them Saturday between games. Please make sure they have a copy.

Ballskills homework: Download here.
Several of the girls have been doing an awesome job with this. I'm also seeing a big difference in the ones who are spending time with the ball. I firmly believe that these are skills that dedicated players need to practice on their own. Waiting around for a training session with a professional coach to do stuff you can do at home is a waste of good training time. Please download and print the packet. At least one homework sheet is mandatory each month.

See you Thursday!