Health And Fitness: Friendlies Soccer Tournament

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Friendlies Soccer Tournament

Vipers and Stars preparing for the shootout

This weekend girls and boys soccer teams in the Greater Albuquerque area fine tuned their skills at the 13^th Annual GroundHogWash Friendlies 2K12 Tournament in preparation for their regular season. As the name implies, the games were fun and friendly.


A rare miss by Stars' goalkeeper who was stellar

But what made this tournament extra special, in my opinion, is that girl teams played boy teams in this round robin tournament. The U13/U14 age group included 3 boys teams and 3 girls teams. Two of those teams (pictured here) played late Saturday afternoon.

Viper's coach discussing the lineup

While my son played for the East Mountain Vipers, I also cheered for the East Mountain Stars girls' team as did many other Vipers' parents. The girls demonstrated a lot of raw skill and determination that brought back fond memories from my youth as a player in the Niagara Pioneer Soccer League in western New York.

The boys quickly overcame their hesitation to play a girls team after the first few minutes of the game. The girls were out there for one reason and one reason only -- TO PLAY SOCCER -- and that they did.

End of game handshake

I give the players and coaches on both sides a lot of credit for displaying good sportsmanship and professionalism on the field. I think the boys even picked up some tips from their female opponents -- they learned the importance of talking on the field, something that comes much more naturally to girls than to boys!