Soccer Moves Indoor in a Place Without Winter

[david weir]

Here in San Francisco, the seasons are really just nuances, shades of difference, with one succeeding the another. There is no long, hot, sweaty summer like in Mississippi, for example; nor is there any real cold, cold winter, as in my home state of Michigan. We never get snowstorms, just as we never get extended periods of tropical heat, though given global climate change, you may wish to check back in on that one, say, 40 years from now.

Whatever, being a coastal town, where the in-rushing colder air of the Pacific Ocean meets the off-gassing hotter air of the San Joaquin Valley of inner California, our weather changes on an hourly basis most of the time.

We locals, therefore, dress in layers, since we never can tell what it's going to be like outside an hour from now, let alone a mile north, south, east, or west of here, on any given day.

That said, most of our local soccer authorities have long since determined that we do indeed have climatic, as opposed to incliment weather here in our "winter," so outside futbol basically ceases hereabouts for a few months, while we all move inside, to smaller venues, as the strange, exciting game of futsal takes over.

Yesterday was the first day of futsal practice for my 17-year-old all-city soccer player. He's been a defender all 12 years he's played the beautiful game, so I am used to seeing him range back and forth on the outside pitch, taking down all comers, and igniting his team's offense in the process.

Outside,  where the game has been played traditionally, it's a large venue, where scoring chances develop slowly and occasionally.

Inside, it's like soccer on steroids, where everything happens so quickly if you should blink you will probably miss another goal or near-goal.

It is a great way for players to develop one-touch passing and goal-scoring skills. It's also an extremely exciting sport to watch from the sidelines.

Yesterday was the first day of practice for my  futsal player, and his little sister (13), who is also a defender on the U-14 girls soccer team he coaches, and I, went in to watch the end of their scrimmages.

The tiny basketball court where they practice is in a Lutheran Church day school facility.

She and I arrived in time to watch the last four or five fast-paced scrimmages. Her brother was on the "yellow" team, wearing #8.

Though it had been more over a month since he had played or practiced soccer whatsoever, he was dominant out there, on the small court, guarding his team's net and setting up their offensive thrusts.

His team beat the "reds," then the "greens," then the reds, then the greens again, in a series of fast-paced 5-minute scrimmages. The cumulative score was something like 15-5.

What was striking was the way every time save one another player smashed into my daughter's coach, he being the last line of defense before a goal, he won the battle. Several times, the attackers ended up on the floor; whether or not that happened he ended up in control of the ball and jump-started his team's offense.

There was no way for me to accurately add up how many assists he had, but he did score one dramatic goal during this flurry of action.

As I watched this, I once again reconsidered what I should do, as the parent of a talented athlete, now a junior in high school -- about how to advise him as to what his chances might be to continue this athletic career beyond high school. Lately he has been expressing reservations about how important soccer may be to his choice of colleges, so I've also been scaling back my own expectations.

But yesterday, watching him perform, I had to ask myself why he shouldn't continue to shoot to be a star at the next level?

If you'd been there with me, you would have seen what I saw. What is your advice, fellow parents?

[Soccerama]

The question for you is if he get's into two schools one of which is academically better than the other but only gets on the soccer team of the less academically challenging school (for the moment forget about money, scholarships or any other factors such as geography); how will you counsel him?