Tournament weekend

I decided to post a part of an email that I sent my mom, talking about nathan's tournament weekend in Glen Ellyn. It was his first tourney, with his first traveling team. Here is the message.....sorry about the format!

Nathan had a soccer
tournament this weekend....and between the hecticness
of that and the heat/sun we were in, we were
completely wiped out by the time we got home everyday.
Yesterday it reached 90 degrees! I think we broke a
temperature record for October in Chicago. There was
also the marathon in Chicago yesterday-matt told me
that they had 300 marathon runners have to go to the
hospital (NWM)...3 are in critical condition...one
actually died! They eventually cancelled the race for
the first time in history. How terrible.

Nathan's team won their tournament. It was fun to
watch. Nathan plays defense most of the time when he
is on the field. He is quite good back there! He
plays "sweeper", which is the last guy to get past
before the goalie. He was doing a great job--not
letting anything by him. It is fun to hear people you
don't know say "that #7 is quick--watch him, he is
good."

He also plays goalie for a half of each game. He is
pretty good in there, too....although that position
always gets me nervous. It is the worst place to see
your kid as a mom. Lots of pressure! :0) During the
championship game....Nathan got hurt in goal. It was
a exciting, but very wild game. The parents were out
of control yelling--mainly due to the ref not
contoling what was happening on the field. Too many
kids were making dangerous plays, taking each other
out in illegal ways (basically going after the guy,
instead of the ball, etc.) We think, sometimes on
purpose, and sometimes by accident. Nevertheless,
the ref is supposed to talk to the kids when this
happens--in Jake's games the kids would have gotten
yellow cards for sure. BUT-the ref would either let
play continue, or just blow the whistle and make a
call, without telling the kid in fault that you can't
play like that. The parents, of course, were getting
more and more riled up....as kids were getting hurt on
the field. It was just not good....one of our parents
and one of the other parents were having a yelling
match by half time....and another one of our parents
and to step in and pull "ours" away. (Our parent is
hispanic, and I don't want to be stereotypical, but he
takes soccer VERY seriously, and is sometimes
embarrassing the way he is always yelling from the
sidelines....yesterday it was too much!) These kids
are just 8-9 years old! ANYWAY-the ref was not
contolling any of this.....which she should have done,
because it just kept escalating. Our first goalie got
laid out by this big tall kid on the other team.
Basically, knocking our goalie off his feet after he
had control over the ball. (This is illegal....once
the goalie has the ball, the field palyers are
supposed to back off). When that goalie was removed
from the field, hurt--our coach put Nathan in. Nathan
played the rest of the first half in goal, then
started the second half in goal, too. The same kid,
came at Nathan when he was saving a shot. The kid slid
into nathan cleats up (also normally getting a yellow
card) when Nathan was crouched down low. Matt was on
his feet yelling that the kid had his cleats up, and I
had to restrain myself from running onto the field.
Nathan was in a little ball on the field (in a
position like he was playing leap frog) and he wasn't
getting up. The ref called our coach onto the
field.....and by that time I could see that nate
wasn't seriously injured (so I relaxed) but the
parents were going wild. Nathan was pulled off, and
it took a while finding another kid willing to get in
goal after the whole display, and history of what had
been happening to the goalies! Nathan's right hand is
still hurting today, as I think his hand wrapped
around the ball got most of the kid's cleated foot.
(He did save that goal by the way, even though
initially the ball bobbled with the impact--Nathan
still was able to dive onto it after he was hurt.)

The game ended in a tie....which meant they had to
play two more 5 minute halves to determine the winner.
We scored two goals during overtime, and they didn't
score any....so we won. WHEW! The boys were pretty
excited. :0) Nathan's hand is still hurting today,
but there is no obvious bruising, and it isn't
swollen.....so, we will just wait and see.

Matt's wrist is still a mess......he did find out that
he had torn cartilidge. And he needs to continue
wearing the brace.....and limit movement for it to
heal. He has another appointment at the end of the
month to monitor progress....but so far, it still is
really hurting him. They did mention the possibility
of surgery if it doesn't heal on its own....but, we
are praying that it won't come to that.