October Extracurriculars

[mommyatty]

DD had a field hockey game yesterday against a powerhouse team. They gave up a very early goal, and I kind of braced myself for a beating. But they rallied and ended up in a 1-0 loss. Yes, still a loss, but considering the team they were playing, they did great! And DD had a lot of awesome saves in goal! She looked so good and was really aggressive. I was very proud of her.

[mustardseed2007]

DS had an audition last weekend for a Christmas play. During the parent meeting where we were asked to let them know about conflicts I realized the teacher intends to have practice on Halloween from 5pm to 7:30pm which feels really nuts. I wonder how many kids will be absent that day!

[mae0111]

It's getting busier!

DD1 is doing pickle ball and set design for the high school play. She also just joined Special Olympics, which is a Saturday morning activity and directly conflicts with DD2's soccer, which we committed to back in June. DD1 has no cares about that commitment and is demanding I leave games to pick her up and drive her home. Growing pains. We will figure it out. She is also taking guitar lessons at school. She was largely self-taught and all by ear. She taught herself to mix tracks and layer vocals. It's pretty neat!

DD2 is still playing on 3 different soccer teams. Club is doing pretty well, town rec team is awful and hasn't won a game but she doesn't care because the kids are nice. School team hasn't had a game yet but there's a big range of skill on the team. She is also involved with the school play. It's a lot, and she's been up really late studying all week this week. Winter is much quieter for us so I'm looking forward to that. Both kids will do rock climbing at school and DD2 will play indoor soccer. DD1 aged out of rec basketball and DD2 begged me not to sign her up. I'm sad that our basketball time is over because that's my very favorite sport. Oh well...

[librarychica]

I think I mentioned that my 4th grader has signed up for all the things?

She’s in a competitive problem solving team team (this is a thing I’ve now learned! Evidently our school went to internationals last year) they have practice before school once a week, she got a role in the school play and has that practice once a week, and she and DD1 both joined the girls who code club which meets twice a month. This is a lot for us — usually the kids have maybe one thing a week.

DD1 also has a volunteering-heavy elective this semester and is prepping for some dance performances.

[waverly]

DD is still doing club soccer. She wanted to do cross country, but was waffling and missed the cut off date to decide. I am secretly happy about it because I think it would have been too much, and it would be better in 7th grade anyway because 6th grade was the adjustment to middle school.

DS is also doing club soccer. His sprained ankle is better, and he is back to practices and games.

[mommyatty]

mae0111- can your DD1 be home alone? Because she’s old enough to do UberTeen or another ride share, if that’s a possibility.

[mae0111]

mommyatty, she can be home alone. She can also hang at school for like an hour until I get there. Her school is very busy on Saturdays - all of the sports teams have their games on Saturdays. So she could easily bring a book or some homework, or even just her phone and go into the student commons and grab a hot chocolate and chill out. Or she could walk 1/4 mile down the road to a really cool coffee shop and grab a hot chocolate there. Or riding her bike is also an option.

There are many options that are inconvenient to her. It will work out. She's just being a selfish teenager and I didn't have the strength to argue with her this morning, which is when she announced that I would need to rework my schedule to please her.

I'm working on being more patient. It's a process.

[twinmomma]

We are busy right now! This is our first year where all three kids are doing multiple activities and they're all different.

DD1 is busy with band during school and jazz band after school. She also does color guard after school.
DD2 is doing color guard after school and she's performing in a Shakespeare play this month at a local theater, so she's got a lot of rehearsals that we're juggling. The show performances will be cool - she will skip school one day to do a daytime school performance that local high schools are coming to watch as a field trip. And then the normal evening shows.
DS is doing soccer, volleyball, and drama club. He got an assist in his soccer game the other day so that was a huge win for him and helped keep his confidence up.

The girls' school just sent out a message about Destination Imagination and I think that's something they're going to want to do. They were jealous of DS doing it last year at his school. So that might be added to the mix too. 

[186momx]

First gymnastics comp is November 2nd and DD is freaking out. Lots of over thinking on skills and skills that aren't 100% nail down. Friday night she lost her round-off backhand-spring. She can do a standing backhand-spring no problem. She can connect the backhand spring to a back tuck on tumble Trak with her coach standing there. She cannot connect the round-off to the backhand-spring. It is 100% in her head. She also is growing again and when that happens all her skills kind of go to pot.

Getting the 70+grams of protein has been easier than DD thought. It does give her more energy but when she doesn't have gym it is leaving her bouncing off the walls at night and she isn't sleeping great.

[sdlaura]

DD is doing her middle school flag football team (they formed a team for 7th graders and one for 8th graders) and playing travel softball. Tuesdays she has PE at school (which is a very athletic PE with timed miles and everything) and flag football practice or game and a 2-hour softball practice. I have lots of respect for how hard she's working.

DS1 is doing fall soccer (two practices a week plus a game), a weekly baseball clinic, and recently started jiu jitsu, which he is really loving.

DS2 is also doing fall soccer (two practices a week plus a game). I really need to get DS2 and DS3 into some gynmastics, but scheduling is tough and none of the gymnastics places are super close. DS2 practices his cartwheels constantly during soccer practice.

DD's flag football and DS1's soccer and jiu jitsu are all in our neighborhood and the kids can take themselves, which is awesome. So we're just driving for DD's softball and DS1's baseball clinics.

Yesterday was DD's first flag football game. They played against their school's 8th grade team. DD is the only quarterback. Probably half of the team has never played before. Then DD and a few of her teammates were on the team that won the grade 5/6 Friday Night Lights league championship last spring. DD's friend who was her main receiver for long passes is having issues all of a sudden. The girl is super athletic and tall and fast. DD says she's "turned into a middle schooler" and is too focused on boys now that she has a boyfriend. But I think there must be more to it now that this super athletic kid can't seem to catch the football - maybe hormonal/puberty-related? So DD had two long passes to her yesterday that were intercepted by the other team. In both cases, DD sprinted faster than I've ever seen her to try to get the flag of the girl who made the interception. The second time DD caught the girl by doing a hilarious diving belly flop at her to grab her flags. It was amazing and funny DD's team still lost, but it wasn't that lopsided of a game as she had expected. Thursday they play another middle school - there are two games a week for the next 6 weeks, so it's a lot.

[madringal]

DD2 had her last gymnastics meet of the MS season last night. She is team 2 and only team 1 gets to participate in the conference championship meet next week. She was pretty bummed. But it led to a great conversation about choosing what type of sports "career" she wants. She was offered a club team spot at 8, but had no interest in spending 3 hours at the gym 4 nights a week. The team 1 girls were probably the ones that did. If she wants a spot next year or in HS, she has to commit now to putting in the work year around. If she wants to have fun and just be more laid back, that's fine too. But she can't train for 3 months and then be disappointed she isn't in the top 6.

[erbear]

DD1's HS soccer team continues to go downhill. They are so bad and it's just not fun. I'm bummed for her -- she had such a good experience last year (9th grade), even though they weren't that good, but there's no senior leadership this year, they yell at each other the whole game, the coach has them playing a weird formation with strange personnel choices...it is not fun to watch.

Her club team, on the other hand, is a blast. So that's been a nice change (new team this year).

DD2 played exactly one MS game and 4 club games before she busted her elbow. She's out for 3-4 weeks, which is pretty much the whole school season, so she's bummed about that (8th grade, so her last year on the team). She will probably be back in time for the last 3-4 weeks of club. Her team is frustrating to watch. They have too many kids (18 on the game roster), about 4 of whom really have no business playing U14 travel. Their coach had told us that he was going to recommend that they move to intramural since he had gotten 5 new players who are very good, but he didn't, and he plays everyone and they are awful. I wish he would just play to win at this level. I think we are going to move her to a new club next season -- she's very good and she's getting worse playing with this team.

[mae0111]

DD2 had a soccer tourney this weekend and it was so much fun! They went 2-1 - the wins were so fun to watch - 4-0 and 3-1. They lost 1-0 but Dd2 missed the game for a birthday party. The parents that went said they outplayed the other team and just couldn’t put the ball in the net. And that the one goal that went in was kind of a fluke. It’s nice to see that the team is clicking. The new assistant coach has everything to do with that. He moved kids around, including putting DD2 back on defense where she belongs. She is soooo happy to be back there.

And her town rec team tied this weekend - their first non-loss!! Last game of the season next week.

[dglvrk2]

October is a pretty chill month - literally and figuratively - for us.

DD1's club volleyball season wrapped up two weeks ago. She's doing volleyball practices locally two days/week starting tomorrow through Thanksgiving. They're much more relaxed than club.

DD2 had her last official soccer games of the season Saturday. Her coach and a few other coaches are organizing some pick up games over the next few weekends. The temperatures are dropping quickly here. Assuming we don't get snow for the reminder of the month, she will have some rather relaxed soccer games.

DD1 started bass lessons and DD2 started vocal lessons a couple of weeks ago. Not sure how they're going yet. It's been a push to get them to practice 🤷

[soccermama]

DD wrapped up school volleyball last week. Her team had a great season!! I think it was 14-2? And the 2 losses were both to the same school. It seems like this team really bonded together (more so than last year), so I think she is gonna miss it. Club volleyball practices start in about 3 weeks. At least we have a little break before that!

DS has about 3 weeks of soccer left, because make-up games got extended. It feels like this has been the best season for this team, they have had some wins & ties which is better than previous seasons.

[sandandsea]

Ds1 just made the middle school soccer team so things just got crazy busy for the next 6 weeks. Thankfully it’s a short season and school soccer is super chill compared to club so it should be fun. But it means 3 weekdays we have morning before school soccer practice and 1-2 games after school in addition to his normal club evening practices.

[sdlaura]

sandandsea we are new to middle school sports and I was also surprised at the very compressed season! For us it's only about a month-5 weeks long per sport/season. For DD's flag football, the games replace practices instead of adding to them. So she has flag football Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school. Before games started, it was a 3-4 pm practice each day. Now on Tuesday and Thursday she has 5 pm games, so she just arrives early for a warm-up and there's no practice those days.

Here, the soccer clubs won't allow their players to play on the middle school team because they're worried about injuries I guess? So anyone who does both has to keep it a secret!

[sandandsea]

Yeah if you play at the 2-3 highest levels (mls next or ecnl or usl academy) you can’t play for school because you’re contracted. Technically I guess all club players are contracted but professional contracts aren’t really a thing at our level. Because ds also races and won’t give that up (and probably due to size/talent), he’s a tier down from those on the club level and can still play with the club coach’s permission. Thankfully our coach is okay with it but club trumps school so it doesn’t interfere with club. It’s nice because it gives him a chance to play older kids and play with some school friends from different clubs.

ETA all of the clubs here leave it up to the coach to say and I only know 1 coach who told his players no.

[mae0111]

Huh - I didn't know it was a thing that clubs could prevent playing at school. I guess it makes sense at the ENCL/ODP level, but I couldn't imagine DD2's coach telling anyone that they couldn't play for their schools. It's not a huge issue on DD2's team right now - she's the only one eligible/required to play sports for school at this point. In our town and most towns around, kids can't play school sports until 7th grade.

Most soccer clubs around here don't have a fall season for high school athletes. They don't want to overtrain the kids, so the clubs pull back in favor of schools. They'll pick up training immediately upon the conclusion of the fall season.

[erbear]

My nephews played for the Colorado Rapids Academy teams and weren't allowed to play high school ball. They both quit junior year and had a blast playing for their high school teams. I get it, but I don't like it. They're kids. They aren't pros.

[sandandsea]

Oct 16, 2024 7:44:16 GMT -5 erbear said:

My nephews played for the Colorado Rapids Academy teams and weren't allowed to play high school ball. They both quit junior year and had a blast playing for their high school teams. I get it, but I don't like it. They're kids. They aren't pros.

Exactly. It’s for kids who could go pro early. It’s works out great for some like Messi and others who are truly next level talented. One boy from DSs club (born in 2014) moved to Spain play on the Barca development team a few years ago and he’s that kind of talent. We aren’t.

[mae0111]

DD2 came home yesterday and told me that her Nike cleats, brand new in September, tore and the sole and shoe started separating. Also, she said, timing was probably good because they were getting a little tight.

So I started looking for the next kid-size up... no more sizes up. Out of Nike kid sizes. She's tried a few brands and has a lot of ankle discomfort, so I just want to stick to the brand that she seems to do well with. But this means we've now DOUBLED the price of cleats.

*Sob*

[sdlaura]

Yeah, I’m not sure if it’s all clubs here or just the ones that are like ‘elite development’ level. One of DD’s friends is very high level and wants to play for school next year in 7th grade, and her parents are going to let her if she wants to. She’s such a good player that I think no club coach would kick her off a team for that (they wouldn’t want to risk her switching clubs).

[186momx]

mae0111, I also cried when DD moved from kids Nike Pro shorts to women's Nike Pro shorts. The price increase and I swear the women's don't hold up as well as the kids do. I tried all sorts of other brands and DD said the Pro's fit the best and stay put/don't ride up.

I can't imagine a club team telling kids they can't play for their school team. But for our area if you are that elite of a player you are traveling to Portland to play not in our area leagues. I actually know a couple gymnast that travel 90+ minutes to practice at a club outside of where they live because they wanted higher level training. We do a have a few girls on our own team that have a 40 minute commute to practice but that is because they live in a rural area so everything is that kind of commute.

[waverly]

Our boys soccer club for high school only plays winter and spring. Fall is reserved for school soccer.

They have elite levels, but I guess I am kind of assuming by high school they have tried to funnel elite players into the MLS club. MLS apparently doesn't have a club in the suburbs anymore, but they can participate if they drive to the city. 

[sdlaura]

When I was growing up, a classmate who was good enough to eventually play pro soccer moved with his family from Maryland to Florida for training (I just looked up how long he was in the MLS and he apparently played 21 seasons of MLS, so the move was worth it!). But apparently socal with its year round sports clubs has enough critical mass that elite players can just stay local.

[mommyatty]

My 12 year old is in size 10.5 women’s Nikes. She’s going to be a giant.

[mae0111]

Oct 16, 2024 19:06:37 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

My 12 year old is in size 10.5 women’s Nikes. She’s going to be a giant.

DD2 is in an 8W, she’s 11.5 and has not started her period. So I think she has some growing left?? Some manufacturers make kids sizes up to 7 which is 8.5-9 on women’s and the shoes are significantly cheaper… so I bought kids’ sizes as long as possible. I’m buying 2-4 pairs of cleats a year so it was nice to keep them under $50… I keep my eye on sales but still tough to find good ones under $50 in women’s sizes….

[mae0111]

DD2’s town rec team hasn’t won a game all season. Playoffs started today and everyone makes it - so her last place team was seeded against the 1st place team that killed them a few weeks ago.

My thoughts going into the game were like “Ok, good, they’ll get knocked out and she will be done, she has 3 other games and a tryout next weekend, good thing we don’t have to worry about town next week.”

Omg.

They won. Their first win of the season was to knock the #1 team out of the playoffs.

Never give up! And also now she has another game in the mix next weekend 🤪🤪