TheCalabrias.com

Summer is almost over, and I’m falling way behind on my posts…I will try to catch up in the next few days.

Starting with the Spring Soccer Season and the “Every Goal Saves a Life” challenge…the kids did not disappoint us! The Gladiators had another undefeated season, scoring a total of 75 goals:

• Game #1: Gladiators 15 x 2 Athens United (Green)
• Game #2: Gladiators 9 x 0 AU (Gold)
• Game #3: Gladiators 15 x 2 YMCA-Team 2
• Game #4: Gladiators 6 x 0 AU (Gold)
• Game #5: Gladiators 13 x 2 YMCA-Team 2
• Game #6: Gladiators 9 x 2 YMCA-Team 1
• Game #7: Gladiators 8 x5 YMCA-Team1

And, being the proud “Soccer Dad” that I am, I must add that Lorenzo received the “golden boot” honors once again — scoring 23 goals this season.

Cute story:

As I mentioned on my last post, Coach Matt and I struggled with giving all kids a fair share of time on the field, while trying to keep the scores from not reaching double-digits.  So, the “bigger” kids ended up getting more bench time and “defense duties” than last year — which, of course, they didn’t like it.

By mid-season, Lorenzo started getting frustrated and even a bit upset at the end of the matches, even after winning big.  He got especially upset after being told we were going to skip his rotation and keep him in the bench on the 4th quarter of Game #5.  He kept saying that he wanted to score a couple of more goals.

Later that day, I talked to him to find out what was going on.  I explained that we had a very comfortable lead, and that coach Matt and I just didn’t want us to score any more goals. Then, he finally told me why he was so upset. He just needed to score a couple of goals to bring his total to 20.  This way he could save the life of two kids.

Since we were donating $1 for every goal the team scored, and since it took a $10 donation to buy a mosquito net, he had set a target to score at least 20 goals for the season.  I finally got it. So sweet!!!  I gave him a nice hug, and I promised to let him play his fair share the final two matches.

In the end, the Gladiators scored 75 goals, and the Calabria Family ended up donating $120, or 1 mosquito net for every kid in the team.