Weekends like this…..

Weekends like this…..

Weekends like this, so much to do and so little time. FC Fremont soccer and MVAL Water polo seasons both began this weekend. The start of hectic fun times for us. We love to watch the girls in sports and it started with Kelly playing water polo Friday night in the Newark Memorial pre-season tournament. In the first of three games American got their clocks cleaned 21-1. The Varsity girls were outclassed by a clearly dominant Newark squad. The Newark coach shouldn’t have poured it on like he did though. He coached and played his kids the whole game like he was losing. He could have taught his kids a better lesson than running up the score could do. No class at all. That’s why I’m shopping at The Hub and not Newpark Mall from now on.

Kelly played great (of course!) and there was some encouraging play by the varsity girls. They have a core of good players. If their rookie freshman can come up to speed quickly, and the goalie settles in, they may indeed have a chance of upsetting one of the other teams in the MVAL this year. A good team and a good coach with lots of potential. Its gonna be fun! League play begins September 22. Also, It looks like Kate is going to be official “keeper of the book” for the team. Last year when she was on injured-reserve she learned how to keep score and to keep track of everything that’s going on in the official scorebook. Apparently a skill that is in demand. The coach asked for her specifically. After water polo it was off to dinner to celebrate Annette’s birthday. We ate at a new place at the hub called Buena Sera. Italian joint owned by the same people that own our favorite local Italian place, El restaurant il Porcini. Anyway, the service was sloooooooooow and the price-to-food ratio was very loooooooooooow. The $10.95 Spaghetti and meatballs looked like a Childs portion when it arrived. Plus, they ran out of HEINEKEN!! Either way, it was still a fun time and the food was good. Fremont needs new restaurants and we are willing to give these guys another chance. Happy Birthday Annette!!

By the way, Staci came down Friday night and spent the weekend with us. She had tickets to the Cal Bears game against NMSU Saturday, but otherwise spent the rest of the time with us schlepping from one sporting event to another. Plus, the Lewellyn clan, including Diana and Dick, came with us to watch most of the games. Saturday morning started out with a 10am water polo game against Liberty High School. We lost 15-5 or something like that. We can get a pretty good idea as to how the game is going to go right away. Liberty was good and kept beating us with a fast break that we could never catch up to. Its frustrating but still fun for us because Kelly is doing so well on the team. I bet our blood pressure shoots up 50 points while we watch her games.

After the Saturday morning game it started to get complicated. We all went home to re group and have lunch. Kate and Barb then went to Central park for a 1pm soccer game. Kelly and I went back to the pool for a 1 o’clock game against the Irvington High lady Vikes. Kelly is also on the soccer team but was going to miss the game because of the conflicting Water polo tournament. As the game is starting Barb calls and says that no one is at the soccer field. There must have been a communication problem, cant get a hold of anyone and that her and Kate were coming to the water polo game. Cool. We were all there and in the midst of losing to Irvington in water polo when my cell phone rings. Its Kate’s coach asking where is Kate? The games starts in ten minutes and they only have 8 players!! I told him we were just there and no one was around. He said they have a 2 pm game, not 1 pm. EYE YIE YIE…. So Barb and Kate high tale it back to the soccer field while I stay with Kelly. The water polo team continues to improve each game but lost a much closer game to the lady vikes. Our girls play with a lot of heart. Water polo is one tough sport, I’ll tell ya that much. They are all learning what it means to play hard and to play together. Even though Kelly is exhausted from three h2o polo games in two days, I jokingly ask her if she’s ready to play some soccer. I explain the situation, later start time, short on players, and Kelly says, sure, lets do it!.

So we high tale it over to central park and make it there with 5 minutes to go in the first half. Kate is in the goal as Kelly runs on to the field as the 11th player! The scoreboard showed that we were losing 2-1. The second half goes our way. The team played tough. We were able to squeak out a 3-3 tie against a tough Danville team.*NOTE* Kate only gave up one of those goals by the way. This is going to be a great soccer season for us. Both girls being on the same team is very rare, it happens only once every few years and since this may be the last year that they get to play competive soccer together, it makes it extra special. The fact that they are both so good makes it even more exciting. Kate is starting goalkeeper and Kelly is mid-fielder. The other girls on the team are all very competitive and are always hustling. The coach is good too! he has a winning record and really brings out the best in the girls. Gonna be a great year in soccer.

After the game Barb had to hustle home because she had to get ready for the Olivia Newton john concert that she was going to at the mountain winery. Barb Loves Olivia and convinced her girlfriend Marie to go with her. We got to kick back at home for a while until dinner time when we went over the Annette and Steve’s for a Toto’s pizza feast. Other friends of the Lewellyns were there as were Diana and Dick. Seems like we had 6-8 pizzas lined up to eat. I had my share of the #2 with garlic pizza. That’s the best pizza around!! We were all beat so we headed home around 10 pm. Barb made it home from Olivia around 11.

You’d think after all that we could spend a nice quite Sunday at home. But no, we have a 10 am game over at Central park against another team from Danville. Danville, like Fremont, is a big soccer town and is fielding 4 under-19 girls teams this year. As we show up at the field, the coaches daughter pulls up and tells us that her dad will be late because he is coaching his other daughters team and is running behind. As game time approaches, we only have 9 girls who have shown up. 9 is the minimum you can play with before forfeiting. Of course the Danville team has a full squad plus four substitutes. So, just our luck, we start our game down two girls and with no coach. HELP!!

But darn if our girls don’t hustle their butts off and score a couple of quick goals. Our two fast-forwards were able to get in front on a fast break and put it in the net! I’m happy but I’m thinking that we will need a couple of goals insurance because we’ll surely tire out over the course of the game (down 2+ No subs = not good) while the other team will be rotating fresh players in and out. Our girls kept the pressure on and even managed to score a couple more goals! They rotated themselve forward and back to give each other some rest, as well as across the field for some much needed water breaks while the going was slow. They played a great game. By the time the coach came in the 2nd half, we were up 5-0 and just killing the clock. Danville couldn’t get on track and even had their only goal called back becuse of an off sides penalty. All in all a great great effort by Fremont Team Extreme and great to end the weekend on a positive note.

3 days, 2 girls, 3 water polo games- 2 soccer games, Olivia Newton John concert, birthdays, Toto’s pizza. My head is spinning!!

Sunday afternoon is spent snoozing, hydrating, replenishing. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….