U10 Tryouts

Gavin finished playing U8 soccer this past spring.  At U9 and above Broomfield Soccer Club splits its club into two tracks: Competitive (Select) and Recreational.  This separation always seemed like something to look forward to as Gavin was one of the better players on his team each year and it was always a bit frustrating that some kids on his team didn't seem to be interested in soccer all that much.  Unfortunately, USA Soccer made some rule changes this year in the way the age groups were defined.  Kids are now being sorted by calendar year age rather than school year age.  This meant that kids with birthdays between September 1st and December 31st had to move up the equivalent of two years rather than the normal one for the fall season.  This changed Gavin from moving into U9 in the fall to having to play U10.  Also, it meant that most of the kids he was trying out against had already played Select for a year.  Above, you can see Gavin in blue next to the goal.

This was Gavin's first ever tryouts.  They played 7 on 7 on the biggest field Gavin has ever played on before for about two hours.  There were several coaches there evaluating the 30 kids or so from this session with another session taking place a few days later.  The other funny issue that was happening during the tryouts was that Gavin had a severely infected toe and couldn't even wear regular soccer shoes.  I am not sure that made a huge difference as this seemed like the first time that I have ever seen Gavin intimidated on the soccer field.  He was quite tentative and ran around a bit but certainly seemed to stand back and not really engage.  Sitting with Gavin's Coach, Tim, we remarked at how quickly you could look across the field and within 30 seconds tell which kids were playing up two years and which kids were just moving up one.  In the end, Gavin did not make the Select Gold or Select Silver teams which was a bit unfortunate, but I am happy for him taking the chance on trying out and putting himself out there to be evaluated.  I think these are the kind of life lessons that hopefully are bigger than soccer and I am proud of him for it.