Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
16 reasons to be excited and optimistic about Sunday morning!
Game Day
Sunday , 10/9 game time 9:00am please arrive by 8:15 West Hills Field 3, wear WHITE vs TNT.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIRGNzVIz6Y&feature=related
16 reasons to be excited and optimistic about Sunday morning.
1)Annabelle is learning to play an offensive position -- look out!
2)Kate can really catch anything near her!
3)If Kate isn't there Sophia has a knack for the great save!
4)Emmi doesn't stop stepping up!
5)Anastasia, a born goalscorer, is due for a goal!
6) Grace does all the little things (smart touches) just right!
7) Sore knees or not, it is really hard to run past Sophie!
8) Look -- Sawyer can flat out strike the ball!
9) If you don't love watching Jill play you don't like or know sports!
10) Kyra moves and moves and moves!
11) Lauren really doesn't know how much that hurts her head!
12) Christina always makes something happen!
13) Rhea just does not make bad decisions!
14) And, trust me, if you can call it a sport Zoe will master it!
15) Nobody can ask more rhetorical questions ("Can we be a bit more physical girls? Can we take the ball out of the air girls?") in a row faster than Coach Cookie.
16) Parents have not had a chance to absorb all their caffeine at 9AM on a Sunday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cWzxJvgWc8&feature=related
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Reminders for this week into next, Oct 6-13
Tonite --Thursday: Practice 6-7:30 arrive by 5:50 for warm-up.
Game Day
Sunday , 10/9 game time 9:00am please arrive by 8:15 West Hills Field 3, wear WHITE vs TNT.
Reminder: starting next Monday 10/10 practice will go from 5.45-7.15pm.
There is an "added" practice next Wednesday 10/12 since we missed some due to the weather/fields. It will be from 5.00-6.30pm and will likely be on the football field.
Reminder: starting next Monday 10/10 practice will go from 5.45-7.15pm.
There is an "added" practice next Wednesday 10/12 since we missed some due to the weather/fields. It will be from 5.00-6.30pm and will likely be on the football field.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Good News Bears
You don't want to be in first place -- at least not in sports movies.
First place teams are almost always anonymous villains. Quite often they are overwhelmingly privileged and wealthy. Last place teams are the heroes or heroines who struggle to overcome odds. In other words, if the Bloomfield Force were cast in a movie....
The locus classicus for kids' sports movies in this regard is probably the now (almost) unwatchable Bad New Bears from 1976 (not the Billy Bob Thornton remake of a few years ago). In that film a hastily thrown together team of little league misfits has to compete with a well funded team of superstar kids. The film is unwatchable because of its politically incorrect language, language placed in the mouths of 12 year old boys. The language is racist, anti-semitic, sexist, and homophobic.
While this language is certainly offensive to us today, the film actually sought to counter all these nasty "isms."
The little league team is something like the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise (also ahead of its time in the way it sought a "diverse" crew -- white, black, Asian, Russian, Vulcan -- there was even a Brit that nobody could understand -- albeit everyone was captained by a white guy). Think "Glee" in space or on the Litttle League diamond -- 30 years before Glee was cool.
The underdog Bears feature an African-American kid, a brainy, statistically savvy Jew, a non-English speaking Latino, a kid with a rather difficult to stomach chronic illness, Tatum O'Neal as a girl (for pete's sake! who can play better than the boys), a chain-smoking juvenile delinquent, and, oh my goodness gracious, something we still couldn't tolerate today, an overweight kid who eats junk food on the field. The Bears weren't far enough ahead of their time to feature an openly gay or lesbian character but, then again, neither was Star Trek (that I recall).
The team is coached, too, not by the slick salesman-like pre-yuppy in an upscale California suburb that coaches the first place team, but by a washed up minor leaguer with a drinking problem who now cleans pools for a living. The head coach is a version of what used to be called "white trash." This categorization is undermined a bit by the fact that the character is portrayed by Walter Matthau -- just as Captain Kirk is played by William Shatner. Both actors were Jews who somehow managed to get cast in roles that really suggested Protestant, working class, midwestern Americans. Matthau's character comically secures a team sponsor by contacting the local bail bondsmen (think Dog, the Bounty Hunter).
The "Bears" of the title win by learning how to work together and how to use their marginalized social positions as motivation. At the very end, in fact, the Matthau character realizes he is turning in to the very opposition he despises by relying only on his superstar player (Kelly Leak, an actor never heard from again). He insists in the championship game not to win at all costs but to play for the spirit of the game. The team, the coach recalls, had been formed at the insistence of a wealthy attorney whose own kid had been excluded from the league (I forgot the reason). The ending is overwhelmingly uplifting and, if seen today, you will note the striking shot of all these different types of kids hugging their coach at the middle of the film. Birmingham and Bloomfield Public Schools work hard to get pictures for their pr publications that reflect that kind of diversity and universality.
But, again, the language of the film is so jarring to our ears we would miss this point entirely. The point was probably missed when the film was released, too.
Indeed, the filmic strategy is risky. The generic problems were made clear by Carl Reiner's All in the Family of the same era. In trying to satirize a bigot, Archie Bunker, Reiner inadvertently created a strange social hero. Rather than laugh at the insensitivity of Bunker's language and values audiences more often than not laughed with him. I certainly did. Bunker reminded me of most of the adult males around me. The Bad News Bears was popular, in part, for this reason. That is, kids laughed at the language and may have missed the social point.
Or did they? That is, those "kids" that were laughing were us parents. Socially speaking, our kids are much better at handling these issues than we were. Perhaps films like the Bad News Bears -- language and all -- did their job after all. If you are forty or over you read this post with ease. If you are younger than that you might not follow it at all. And that is probably good news.
First place teams are almost always anonymous villains. Quite often they are overwhelmingly privileged and wealthy. Last place teams are the heroes or heroines who struggle to overcome odds. In other words, if the Bloomfield Force were cast in a movie....
The locus classicus for kids' sports movies in this regard is probably the now (almost) unwatchable Bad New Bears from 1976 (not the Billy Bob Thornton remake of a few years ago). In that film a hastily thrown together team of little league misfits has to compete with a well funded team of superstar kids. The film is unwatchable because of its politically incorrect language, language placed in the mouths of 12 year old boys. The language is racist, anti-semitic, sexist, and homophobic.
While this language is certainly offensive to us today, the film actually sought to counter all these nasty "isms."
The little league team is something like the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise (also ahead of its time in the way it sought a "diverse" crew -- white, black, Asian, Russian, Vulcan -- there was even a Brit that nobody could understand -- albeit everyone was captained by a white guy). Think "Glee" in space or on the Litttle League diamond -- 30 years before Glee was cool.
The underdog Bears feature an African-American kid, a brainy, statistically savvy Jew, a non-English speaking Latino, a kid with a rather difficult to stomach chronic illness, Tatum O'Neal as a girl (for pete's sake! who can play better than the boys), a chain-smoking juvenile delinquent, and, oh my goodness gracious, something we still couldn't tolerate today, an overweight kid who eats junk food on the field. The Bears weren't far enough ahead of their time to feature an openly gay or lesbian character but, then again, neither was Star Trek (that I recall).
The team is coached, too, not by the slick salesman-like pre-yuppy in an upscale California suburb that coaches the first place team, but by a washed up minor leaguer with a drinking problem who now cleans pools for a living. The head coach is a version of what used to be called "white trash." This categorization is undermined a bit by the fact that the character is portrayed by Walter Matthau -- just as Captain Kirk is played by William Shatner. Both actors were Jews who somehow managed to get cast in roles that really suggested Protestant, working class, midwestern Americans. Matthau's character comically secures a team sponsor by contacting the local bail bondsmen (think Dog, the Bounty Hunter).
The "Bears" of the title win by learning how to work together and how to use their marginalized social positions as motivation. At the very end, in fact, the Matthau character realizes he is turning in to the very opposition he despises by relying only on his superstar player (Kelly Leak, an actor never heard from again). He insists in the championship game not to win at all costs but to play for the spirit of the game. The team, the coach recalls, had been formed at the insistence of a wealthy attorney whose own kid had been excluded from the league (I forgot the reason). The ending is overwhelmingly uplifting and, if seen today, you will note the striking shot of all these different types of kids hugging their coach at the middle of the film. Birmingham and Bloomfield Public Schools work hard to get pictures for their pr publications that reflect that kind of diversity and universality.
But, again, the language of the film is so jarring to our ears we would miss this point entirely. The point was probably missed when the film was released, too.
Indeed, the filmic strategy is risky. The generic problems were made clear by Carl Reiner's All in the Family of the same era. In trying to satirize a bigot, Archie Bunker, Reiner inadvertently created a strange social hero. Rather than laugh at the insensitivity of Bunker's language and values audiences more often than not laughed with him. I certainly did. Bunker reminded me of most of the adult males around me. The Bad News Bears was popular, in part, for this reason. That is, kids laughed at the language and may have missed the social point.
Or did they? That is, those "kids" that were laughing were us parents. Socially speaking, our kids are much better at handling these issues than we were. Perhaps films like the Bad News Bears -- language and all -- did their job after all. If you are forty or over you read this post with ease. If you are younger than that you might not follow it at all. And that is probably good news.
Change to practice time next week
From Coach Cookie:
With the fading light we now need to start and end practices a little earlier, so starting next Monday 10/10 we will go from 5.45-7.15pm.
Also, I would like to add a practice next Wednesday 10/12 since we missed some due to the weather/fields. It will be from 5.00-6.30pm and will likely be on the football field.
With the fading light we now need to start and end practices a little earlier, so starting next Monday 10/10 we will go from 5.45-7.15pm.
Also, I would like to add a practice next Wednesday 10/12 since we missed some due to the weather/fields. It will be from 5.00-6.30pm and will likely be on the football field.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Weekly update from Alice!
Hello All,
Practice tonight 6-7:30 arrive by 5:50 for warm-up.
Tuesday: Aaron Byrd 5-6 everyone welcome to attend.
Thursday: Practice 6-7:30 arrive by 5:50 for warm-up.
Game Day
Sunday , 10/9 game time 9:00am please arrive by 8:15 West Hills Field 3, wear WHITE vs TNT.
Let’s encourage our girls to win this one on our home field!!!
Date Time Team Location Jersey Color
Sat 10/15 3:00pm @ Canton Black Independence Park, Canton Field 6 BLACK
Sun 10/16 5:30pm vs Jags White West Hills Field 3 WHITE
Sat 10/22 Playoffs – games could be scheduled throughout the day
Sun 10/23 Playoffs – games could be scheduled throughout the day, if we win Saturday
Indoor games at Ultimate will start Saturday 10/28. The schedule should be out one week before for the start of the season.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
TNT -- October 1
And then they were tied -- for last place. Coach Cookie had promised playing 11 v 11 would be tough.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQlImg2bm28
He was true to his word.
The Force girls took on TNT this afternoon on a chilly and extraordinarily bright Saturday afternoon in East Lansing. TNT had yet to win a game in the division and the Force had won only one. At the end, TNT came out on top 2-1, getting goals with 20 seconds left in the first half and two minutes left at the end of the game.
Things could have been much, much worse.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn9V3gtwMrc&feature=related
The Force played well enough early on showing good ball movement and control. Christina made a spectacular individual effort to drill one in from the lest side some 15 minutes in. Sidney, playing alongside her Purple clubmates after a White team match, added some offensive creativity and speed up the left side. Kate played tough as always in net.
But with 20 seconds left TNT tied things up and the game went downhill from there. The Force managed to cross midfield precisely 4 times in the next half and had no real opportunities. Kate was unusually good, fending off corner and free kicks routinely. At one point she almost snagged a nose high corner that a 16 year old boy would have had to punch away. The ball dropped from her hands though and TNT had three shots on an open net. Sophia, as she has done in earlier games, got herself positioned on the goal line to keep out what looked like a sure goal. And Kyra showed good energy and hustle covering a remarkable number of yards from her forward spot.
The rest of the time, however, was a Sisyphean punting ritual by Kate as ball after ball was snagged by TNT at midfield and returned to the keeper.
Parents thought we would be lucky to pull out a tie. Yet a great run by a TNT forward late in the game ended that dim hope.
He was true to his word.
The Force girls took on TNT this afternoon on a chilly and extraordinarily bright Saturday afternoon in East Lansing. TNT had yet to win a game in the division and the Force had won only one. At the end, TNT came out on top 2-1, getting goals with 20 seconds left in the first half and two minutes left at the end of the game.
Things could have been much, much worse.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn9V3gtwMrc&feature=related
The Force played well enough early on showing good ball movement and control. Christina made a spectacular individual effort to drill one in from the lest side some 15 minutes in. Sidney, playing alongside her Purple clubmates after a White team match, added some offensive creativity and speed up the left side. Kate played tough as always in net.
The rest of the time, however, was a Sisyphean punting ritual by Kate as ball after ball was snagged by TNT at midfield and returned to the keeper.
Parents thought we would be lucky to pull out a tie. Yet a great run by a TNT forward late in the game ended that dim hope.
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