Soccer - The Ultimatum and The New Chapter

You might remember me writing about Briana's loss of confidence in my post "Let's Talk About Soccer, Shall We?" 

I wasn't sure I wanted Briana to continue with soccer next season if she was going to continue slacking off on the field and acting like she was terrified of the ball. She just didn't seem to be having fun playing soccer anymore.

She admitted to Doug and me that she has been scared - scared of being hit in the face with the ball (which she witnessed a couple of times this season) and scared of the bigger girls on the opposing teams. We assured her it is ok to be nervous about those things but that she had to somehow overcome that fear in order to continue to play soccer.

We finally gave her an ultimatum. If she didn't give a 100% during the tournament (which was on May 3), she was done. No more soccer. She didn't have to score a goal or be the best player that day, but she had to play hard and give it her all. It was tough love. We figured if she really wanted to continue soccer, she needed to prove it to us.

The morning of the tournament came and she was nervous. We were all nervous.

The girls were put up against 3 super strong teams. Sadly, they lost every game. It was hard to watch, but the girls didn't give up. They tried hard.

Despite the losing streak...Briana. Was. Awesome.

Her spark came back. Her head was fully in the game and she was fighting for that ball.

She even played goalie. I was quite nervous when I saw her put the pinnie (shirt) on. She usually isn't a strong goalie. Oh. My. Gosh. She made three beautiful saves while she was at the goal. I was stunned and so very proud...

I enjoyed watching her more during this tournament than in the last tournament when the girls got into the championship game. Briana's heart wasn't in it at all during the last tournament. Doug and I told her how proud we were of her and we told her that she earned the right to play soccer again next season.

Blue cookies after a lot of hard work...

And a little play time on the playground with her teammate E...

We have a great group of girls (not all of them are in this picture)...

Briana will continue with U8 soccer. I am relieved that she's still "got it" (I was so worried she had lost her mojo for good).

Sadly, we learned that our awesome coach is moving on and leaving our team after two great years. We also found out that our team is losing 5 of the girls due to the Y age requirements. Those 5 girls now have to move up to U10.

Here is Briana receiving her trophy from Coach Kari at the end of the season dinner Monday night. We are going to miss her so much...

So now for the new chapter. Doug has decided to take over the team as head coach. He's very nervous/excited about the opportunity (and I am too!). He was an awesome assistant coach/ref this past year and I know he will be awesome next year. The 5 remaining girls and their parents seem quite happy that Doug is taking over. That's a relief!

I'm going to miss all these sweet girls playing together though...

I'm going to remain team mom and Doug is now going to be coach. We will see how Bri responds to daddy being in charge. Wish us all luck! We might need it!

Let's see what the future holds for the new Team Argentina!