Another Great Season for Soccer

 It was going to be an interesting fall for us, with Callie playing high school soccer only and Reese having her club season. Our weeks would be filled with Henry Clay and our weekends focused on LFC. Certainly made for a different type of balance. Weekends suddenly seemed more doable with only one team to focus on. Reese's season started out with a tournament in Indianapolis. As always John was there with the positive pregame chat, trying to get Reese fired up for the games ahead.

This year's team for the most part stayed the same for Reese. There were a couple of players who switched out, but the overall chemistry was still strong, if not stronger. By and large, they played very well against their competition in Kentucky and went undefeated in their league.

Tournaments are certainly where they get their biggest tests as they get to play teams from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and so on. We think we have a strong team, but you play some other states and get your eyes opened. Through it all, Reese continues to improve and most important, have fun with her friends. She is fun to watch, both on the field and on the sidelines. She has taken after her dad and is a very positive encourager to her teammates, and even sometimes to the other team.

As Callie kicked off the school year she was excited to have so many Henry Clay JV soccer teammates with her at Morton. This made wearing jerseys on game day that much more special.

There are seven in the picture above, but there were a couple more who weren't present for this photo. All told, twelve of the twenty-four JV players were 8th graders, which is kind of crazy, especially since they would be playing against freshmen and sophomores all season.

One of the coolest aspects of this season is that Callie would finally be on the same team as her friend Janie, who she first met back in 2012 when they were on the Sting together. The Sting was their introduction to soccer, and we will always be thankful to Coach Patrick, Janie's dad, for making it such a positive experience. We went into our photo archives to find this one of the two side by side on the much smaller field.

Needless to say, Janie and Callie have grown a few inches since 2012, but they have stayed connected through all of that time and now were prepared to see what they could do together for the Blue Devils of Henry Clay. 

This team was such a great mixture of so many girls. It didn't take too many games for us to learn the names of girls we didn't know and to get a feel for how the team would play together. Callie got to play with girls she had been friends with, but never teammates. And she got to know another group of girls she had never met before tryouts.

By the end of the season she had become friends with all of them, and loved the feeling of team unity that high school soccer created. And all of this happened before she was even in high school.

We obviously didn't know what to expect in terms of playing time for Callie and how she would do against older high school competition. Because of the size of the team and the fact that she was an 8th-grader, she didn't start at least half of the games. But the coach did a great job of playing all the girls, so while Callie would have loved to play every minute she made the most of the time she was on the field. She scored the lone goal for her team in their very first scrimmage, which was exciting, then scored two of the teams eight goals in their next one. We weren't sure if these scrimmages were flukes or an indication that she was going to continue the roll she had been on for about a year.

Besides Callie's family, her biggest fan was easily Kelly Abraham. Kelly made a point of coming to as many games as she could, and it was wonderful for Callie and her parents to have their mentor family in the stands.

We have spent the four years watching Ella Abraham play high school soccer, so it was a little strange to have the tables turned, but we relished it.

Nana Banana and Sport always want to see Reese and Callie play when they are able to, and because of the pandemic hadn't been able to catch any games for a good year and a half. When they came in August, they got to see Reese play, but Callie's two scheduled games were canceled, one due to rain and one due to covid. They put on brave faces, but Nana Banana and Sport were disappointed. So two weeks later they made a return trip, flying out for two days to catch one of Callie's games. The Chrismans even came out to join in the fun. Henry Clay rewarded their efforts with a 2-1 victory over Scott County and Callie showed her skills with an assist.

The crazy thing about high school soccer is it is over by early October. Reese, however was still going strong and on Halloween weekend we found ourselves at another tournament outside of Cincinnati. There were at four different LFC teams staying at the same hotel, and some creative parents planned a trunk or treat for all the kids on Saturday night. Some parents even decorated their cars with lights and cobwebs, others just focused on the heaps of candy. Of course, in Lexington fashion, it was scheduled around the Kentucky football game that night.

And for any parent who was concerned that their kid was going to miss out on Halloween because of the tournament, we're pretty sure their anxieties were eased by the haul. The girls were certainly happy.

They did actually play soccer that weekend, as well, although that is not the highlight they remember as much as the trunk or treating or the hotel shenanigans. It was another strong season for the LFC 2010 Girls White squad overall, and we are excited to see what the spring will bring. 

It wasn't until mid-November that Henry Clay had its end of the season banquet, which gave us time to reflect on how it had all gone for the team and for Callie. In total, the Henry Clay JV was 6-3 in the regular season, scoring 25 goals and only conceding 5 goals. Nine different girls scored for the Blue Devils, and Callie was the golden boot winner with 9 goals total. Sarah, our statistics guru, didn't keep track of everything, but we know she also had at least five assists. And when the night of the banquet came, we were over the moon proud to learn that Callie was named the team MVP. Unfortunately we (including Callie) missed the in person presentation because Callie had a basketball game that made her late to the ceremony. But she got her plaque, and got to snag some pictures with her teammates, including Janie, who was named Rookie of the Year. They owe it all to the years on the Sting.

Soccer continued to be a presence in our lives even after the girls seasons ended because of a scheduling change by the NWSL. Instead of hosting the NWSL Championship game in Portland, Oregon, they moved it to Louisville, and we were able to get tickets as part of a group with Callie's LFC team. It was a cold day in November, but not too cold, and we were ready for the experience.

We ended up getting to watch a great game. The Washington Spirit defeated the Chicago Red Stars 2-1 on a fantastic goal by Kelly O'Hara in the last part of the second half.

Because of our seat location we got to watch all the players walk on to the field from a pretty close range, which was very cool. All in all it was a great opportunity to see the level of soccer that both Callie and Reese aspire to play.