Liesl's soccer

Liesl’s soccer season has been a joy to watch. She has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few months, learning how to kick the ball more accurately and powerfully, to pass to open teammates, to keep her spacing on the pitch, and to have confidence and aggressiveness in her play. I love to see her game face when she’s confronting the ball or an opponent - she runs at the ball like she wants to get it and she wants to score - and that kind of attitude is worth so much in girls sports at this age.

Her recreational team is once again the Blunicorns, coached by the inestimable Courtney, who both teaches them how to be much better soccer players and makes it super fun. Liesl loves playing with all of her friends on that team. They are undefeated, I think, although no official score is kept. Liesl regularly scores 4-5 goals per game before she is tasked with defense.

Her competitive team is the LYS Black team - the 2010 cohort. There are two teams at her age level (Red and Black) drawing from all of the Lincoln High catchment district, so including girls from Chapman and Ainsworth Elementaries as well as FPE. Most of the girls are in 3rd grade this year, with another year of soccer experience under their belts and a little more height than our girl. She’s used to being one of the biggest, strongest, and fastest among her grade year cohort, so it’s interesting to see her have to catch up among her birth year cohort. But she’s doing great, developing confidence, and will continue on with this team for winter futsal and then spring soccer season.

These pictures are from Blunicorns - I forgot the camera for Sunday's LYS games.

GOAL!