Rockets 2021

Lining up for the ref

I returned for another season as head coach of the Rosemont Rockets. This team has been together (most of them) for I don't know how many years now. Quite a few.

This year was challenging, of course. We missed an entire season last year and it showed in the first half of the season. Although that was only part of the problem. The bigger problems were the terrible heat and wildfires that plagued the start of the season. We were forced to cancel a number of our practices due to the heat and air quality. (And the preseason was already shortened by a couple of weeks due to my travel schedule and the delay caused by permitting issues with the club.) The cancellation that hurt us the most however was the league's seeding tournament.

Because of the wildfires and summer heat, the forecast called for triple-digit temperatures and an AQI north of 100, and closer to 150 by the middle of the day, just as we were scheduled to play our third and fourth games. I worried that the other coaches would not be as cautious as I am about such things and if it were left up to us to decide, I'd get overruled on whether we played the games (presuming the league sanctioned the games). But, I was saved–or so I thought–when the league decided to do the right thing and cancel the entire tournament in the interest of the players health and safety. Well, that decision meant that we were going to start the season in division 2. Not good.

My lads are not bad. They really improved over the course of the season and throughout our practice time. But division 2 was just asking too much of sixteen teenagers who, most of them, hadn't touched a soccer ball in over a year. We got stomped in the first four games. It was discouraging and not fun to say the least. So my hoped-for cancellation of the seeding tournament definitely did not end up well for us.

4 players from rockets, 4 players from BA club, on soccer field

eight youth soccer players before game standing on field

Rockets gathered around coach tom and coach jimmy in post game cheer

We were re-seeded for the second half of the tournament into division 3, a much more appropriate placing for our skill level. We won the first three games, convincingly. We lost the fourth game, in part due to my lack of skills as a coach and my tendency towards sportsmanship (to put a gloss on it). Our opponents only had 9 players (we play 11 v. 11 in U14) and I had 13 or 14 but I agreed to only field 9 players as well. That was a terrible decision that in part cost us the game. It screwed up my rotation and forced me to put players in positions they were unaccustomed to. Oliver and I are still a little bitter about that loss. And then in an epic matchup on the last game of the season, we drew 4-4.

All in all, it was a terrific season. The players really developed and once they got their fútbol legs back, we all had fun.