Pool Fun

At Annabelle Peters's 9th birthday party.

Season Nine, Game Nine: Edmond Arsenal

Nine minutes in: a little high, a little wide.

Emi's great, quick throw-in sets up Sam for the first-half equalizer, and we go into halftime tied, 2-2.

Angel was OK.

Fouled! This trip set up a brilliant free kick by Sam over the wall that set up the Energy's final score.
We lost this game, 6-4, but when it comes to head coach behavior, we remain undefeated.

Pour l'homme

During our walk through Dillards at Penn Square Mall, I invited Emilio to try a bit of YSL cologne. Later, he took great pleasure in noting Mari's surprise when he gave her neck a hug, and she noted its presence.

Season Nine, Game Eight: The Choctaw Header!

Saturday's game--our first in Choctaw--started at 1:30. Emi starts at right midfield.

Ten minutes in, he hustles to the corner, saves the ball, crosses it to Sam . . .  who almost produces the game's first score. So close!
Two minutes later, Emilio delivers a brilliant cross to Sam, who delivers an extraordinary shot into the net. Beautiful teamwork equals a 1-0 lead for the Energy.

Two minutes later, Sam corners, and Emilio heads it. That's Emilio's fourth goal of the season--the first I've seen--and we're up 2-0.

With a few minutes to play in the first half, Emi serves up a nice lead to Angel that almost produces another assist.
Sam's mom Amber took these shots of during and after the game and shared them on Facebook.

Sam's mom, Amber, took this shot at halftime.

Late in the second, Emi's cross shot goes a little long and a little high.  So close!
Energy win this one.  Our record (soccer style) is now 5 - 1 - 2.

Season Nine, Game Seven: Tournament Finals

Top Row from left: head coach Tyler Rhynes, Ian Wrublewski, Colton Scull, Canaan Weddle, Fetinet O'Neal, Logan Wells, Dexter Ellliott, Ben Smith, and assistant coach Jason O'Neal. Front row, from left to right: Carlos Morales, Trevor Sellars, Sam Rhynes, Angel Velazquez, and Emi.

I got home from Arkansas after noon on Sunday, and not long after, Mari, Nina, Pablo and I left for Midwest City to catch Emilio's championship game.Emilio, and his teammates Angel and Carlos spent the day with Coach Tyler's family Before the game, I took the team photo at the top of this post.

Emi starts the game at right midfield. Playing with a strong wind at our back, we fell behind 0-1, scored to tie it up, and then fell behind 1-2 at halftime.

Emilio starts the second half as the center defender. Playing against the wind, we score to tie the game 2-2, and in the final second ALMOST get one by their goalie.

Co-champs?

Nope: we'll play two five-minute overtimes with a golden goal provision. The first to score wins.

We start the first overtime with the wind in our face and maintain the tie.


In the second half of overtime, Emi does some aggressive sweeping.

But in the end, the tournament champs sneak one by us, and we content ourselves with pushing them to the utter limit. Our record is now: 4-2-1.

Zoo!

With eight-and-a-half hours between the tournament semi-final and the final, the Rhynes offered to keep Emilio, Angel, and Carlos, while Mari accompanied Aunt Carolyn, Nina, and Pablo back to Aunt Caroolyn's vehicle in Ada. The Rhynes took boys to eat at a little Irish restaurant, and then they headed to the zoo. Afterwards, we got this report on Facebook from Amanda:"These boys have spent all day with us, and not ONE time did we have to get onto them!! They shared seats and were courteous and kind to one another! I am proud and amazed by them!!"

Season Nine, Game Six: Tournament Semi-Finals

After spending the night in a hotel with Mari, Aunt Carolyn, Nina and Pablo, Emilio reported for what was, in effect, the Tournament semi-final. The Energy enter the game with one more point than their opponent, so if we tie, we advance.
We tie 3-3 and advance. The final is at 5:30, Sunday afternoon.

Season Nine, Game Five: Strong Headwinds

Aunt Carolyn drove up with Mari, Nina, and Pablo in time to watch the second game of the tournament, which did not start until 5:30 in the afternoon (Emi spent the whole day with Coach Tyler and Sam watching other soccer games). That game was against the toughest team in the tournament. We lost 1-3, but the one goal we scored was the first their keeper had given up on the season. We got points for scoring on them, so we finished the first day of the tournament in second place.

Season Nine, Game Four: First Tournament, Third Goal!

Emi's coach and his son Sam picked Emilio up at 6 a.m. on Saturday, the 9th to drive him to Midwest City (an eastern suburb of OK City) for Emilio's first soccer tournament.  Mari stayed in Ada with Nina and Pablo, who had their own soccer game at noon, and I was in Arkansas accompanying ECU students to an Honors Conference.

When Emi's soccer schedule came out, he was not supposed to play until Sunday afternoon in Ada, which would have given me time to drive by from Arkansas to see him, but the game was canceled a week before so that the team could play in the tournament. I would much rather have gone to the tournament than the Honors conference.

Fortunately, some of the other parents posted photos and boxscore updates of the game on Facebook.

Facebook posts from another teammate's Mom report that eight minutes in, Emilio scored the first goal of the game--his third of the season.

We went into halftime leading 3-1.

In the second half, Emi had two assists, and we ended up winning 8-1.