The gang’s (mostly) all here!
Josh has had a great year with the Warwick Academy football program, it’s kept him busy nearly every weekend from October until just now, the end of May! His team, the Warwick Blues, had a fairly successful year in the league – Josh certainly made some strides under the tutelage of Coach Gordon. The regular season officially ended mid-March; however Josh was asked to play with the ‘A’ team during the annual Kappa Classic tournament held at the end of the month so he got to play a little longer… Then on top of that he was approved to be on the U11 team that traveled to Savannah, GA at the end of May to play in the Shamrock Cup tournament! The team kept up practices twice weekly until the tournament so he certainly got his fill of football.
Josh was definitely excited to go on the trip – even if Dad was tagging along (Mom insisted!), so a boys weekend it was! We thought he was just a tad inexperienced at traveling without us to do this without one of us, he was one of the youngest there as he was only 9. (Most of his team was from the year ahead and there was also an U13 team on the trip as well.) He did have about 5 or so others from his year / class, so he definitely had some buddies there and given that the football team was all from Warwick Academy Josh knew everyone so all was good. There were several parents there as well as the coaches, all in all we were a group of about 40 all in.
Traveling there and back was uneventful thanks to the fantastic planning by Coach Mark, his wife Liz, and the rest of the WA coaches crew. With the exception of a brief passport mishap at the very beginning of the trip (!), most everything was smooth sailing – all the flights were made on time (everyone had only carry-on luggage) on the way there and back, the two teams had rented a pair of big vans for getting around, and the hotel was very accommodating to the group – even if we were sometimes a little noisy (the boys were too at times)! The parents had to make their own travel arrangements, but a few of the parents (including me) booked the same flights as the teams to be helpful if needed.
Being tourists for a day
We arrived to Savannah on Thursday fairly late, and as the tournament didn’t start until Saturday morning the boys had an off day on Friday to take in a bit of what the city had to offer. As this was a pseudo-school trip the coaches had arranged for an educational walking tour downtown, and to ensure they were paying attention had arranged a quiz for afterwards! The city is quite beautiful; historical buildings full of character line the streets, which are shaded by huge oak trees and interrupted by pedestrian squares. It was pretty much the embodiment of the slow-paced, hot-but-comfortable city you might envision if you thought of a city ‘in the south’. The boys seemed to soak it in at any rate as they aced the quiz given over lunch at Forsyth Park – points were given and the loser had to commit to performing a dance in front of everyone at a team dinner later in the trip (neither Josh or my team lost, whew)! We descended upon River Street Sweets by the riverfront for a few goodies on the way back to the vans before heading to Fun Zone for the remainder of the afternoon! The go-karts were a huge hit, as was the arcade – Josh and the rest of the gang had a blast, including the adults! Of course, there was the business of football the next day, so after feeding the large crew a relatively quick dinner at a nearby Chili’s, it was back to the hotel for a quick swim and then to bed! The adults stayed up for a bit of a session afterwards, but kept it clean so we could get up for our 6:30am wake up call…
After breakfast at the hotel it was off to the Jennifer Ross Soccer complex for the first day of games! Both the U11 and U13 teams had two games to play on Saturday and two more on Sunday. It turned out to be a very hot day – low 90s with high humidity – but the boys took it in turn and put in some great performances. The U13s had a successful day with two wins, while the U11s had some tough competition (more on that below!) and were handed two losses. They didn’t get themselves down, and seemed to forget all about the games soon after – I suppose that’s what happens when you’re on a trip with your friends! So after another team dinner – this time at Buffalo Wild Wings – it was back to the hotel for kids’ bedtime and another semi-responsible round or two of nightcaps for the adults before the early wake-up call in the morning.
Some football action
Day two of the tourney brought more hot weather and more tough competition for both teams. While the U13s had hoped to continue rolling on to a medal, they were handed two losses to dash their dreams of taking home the hardware. The U11s also had a tough go of it again, chalking up some more experience points while sustaining losses in both their games as well. There was of course some highlights – we had a few nice goals and some great goalkeeping at the other end – and as a spectator I can say it was entertaining football to watch, despite the outcomes. Now, it wasn’t known by the U11 team at the time, but apparently there weren’t any other teams enrolled in the U11 division, so they were moved up to the U12 division… Of course, there are naturally going to be some players on at the top of age range within the age group, so realistically there was likely some 12+ year-olds playing against our team with players like Josh who were not quite 10! So, while not ideal, it certainly gives some perspective to the boys’ performance beyond the score sheet; they definitely held their own against teams that were often bigger and faster. When all was said and done they all stepped up to the challenges before them and had fun doing it!
With the football tourney behind them, all that was left to do was the final team dinner and ‘court session’ at Savannah Taphouse. Coach Pat was the MC for the evening, and with the help of the other coaches they had come up with some ‘fines’ which, as we all agreed, were (as was the saying for the evening) “swift, harsh… but fair”. The penalty typically was having to drink a ‘shot’ which was an awful concoction of orange juice and tobasco (other ingredients may vary)…! Some example fines doled out included forgetting a bag in the airport (which was retrieved), one parent mixing up a passport – nearly causing one child to miss a flight (this was rectified before the flight), and another parent getting a parking ticket in their rental car… all worth one shot! There were more, but you get the idea. A good way to end a great trip.
Court is in session!
I have to say as well, all the boys were very well behaved for the duration of the tour, regardless of what was happening. They were given ample ‘rope’ by parents and coaches alike, but acted reasonably responsible with their spending money, getting themselves into bed and out again in the morning, and behaving at restaurants and other public places.
The same goes for Josh as well, I was really proud of both his performance on the soccer pitch and his conduct throughout the trip. I made an effort to ease up on (what I can now see as) my usual helicopter dad routine, giving him some leeway with his friends to hang out and do his thing, and to be responsible for himself (to a point of course – he is only 9!). I think I only had to wake him and his roomie, Monty, one morning so they didn’t miss breakfast – otherwise he was cool to be on his own when he wanted to be and given that the kids typically stuck together there were few worries to be had when he was off on his own. What was cool was that even though I was letting him be off with his friends whenever he wanted, he still would come back and hang out with me from time to time, which made me smile.
Anyway – in a nutshell – awesome trip, looking forward to next year!
