Freshman Formal

With Siena Smith.

After meeting for dinner at the Torres Family restaurant with Tyler Cantrell and Daphne Draper, Emilio and Siena headed to the Freshman Formal at the Wild Rose event center.

GOOOL!!

U16 Desperados: Game Three, Goal Two, Win Three

U16 Desperados: Game One, Goal One, Win One.

2021 Rose Rock Tournament Championship

Emi's PK.
Sam's second PK defense.
Taylor's PK.
Sam's third PK defense.
Sal's PK.
Sam's 4th PK defense.
Celebrations.
Team photo.

Freshman season, Game Three, Win Three: at Atoka Wampus Cats--Goal One!

Freshman Season, First Varsity Scrimmages: vs. Ardmore and Del City

2/20/2022: As I write this, it has almost been a year since Emilio first suited up with the high school varsity soccer team. For several reasons, I am only now posting these videos. First of all, with 14 scheduled games and several additional scrimmages--including these first two--there were a lot of videos to work through. Secondly, it was hard to pick highlight or representative videos. After many years of club soccer, I could usually restrict myself to just posting assists and goals scored, but in time, we learned that for several reasons goal-scoring was not going to be Emilio's game for the 2021-2022 Ada varsity. Looking back on these videos a year later, it is easier to know what to look for.

Through February 2021, Emilio played on the 9th grade basketball team. The team did well, but it was a frustrating year for Emilio because he was excluded from practicing with the team for multiple weeks because he was exposed to Covid at school. Though Emilio and everyone else in our family diligently observed all the Covid protocols, and he never got Covid himself, he was nevertheless prohibited from practicing or playing with the team for long stretches of the season. There were times when his medical suspension would have been reduced if he had actually caught the virus. Ugh. I've written about this elsewhere.

Part of what made the basketball frustrations difficult was that by playing basketball, Emilio sacrificed time to practice with the soccer team.

Nevertheless, we were greatly pleased when he was slotted in to the starting lineup from his first day of soccer practice. It was an honor he never surrendered. But we didn't know that is how it would play out when we went to that first scrimmage, potentially jeopardizing his status on the team as a freshman.

This was the starting line-up in our 4-3-3 formation at the first scrimmage in Ardmore: Keeper: Colton Scull (Fr.); Right fullback: Dani Monjares (Sr.); Right center-back: Eli Alvarez (Sr.); Left center-back: Philip Jones (Sr.); Left fullback: Dane McKinney (Sr.); Right midfield: Sam Rhynes (So.); Center mid: Minh Nguyen (Jr.); Left midfield: Sal Vallin (Sr.); Right forward: Taylor Byrd (Sr.); Center forward: Jonah Ascencion (Jr.); Left forward: Emilio (Fr.); 

    
It was somewhat alarming that Emilio's first "play" against 5A Ardmore was a whiff. But, fortunately, it was not a sign of the season ahead. As we learned, minute after minute, week after week, the game was not too big for this ninth grader. To Emilio's credit, he thinks this video is funny (though he didn't think the whiff was funny when he was playing the game).

 
This stretch of play was as representative as any other: good vision and passing; lots of rushing back and forth between offensive and defensive responsibilities (with some lack of clarity about his role and the team's needs); arriving half a step too late on occasion, but otherwise: solid defense when called on.
We lost this short scrimmage by several goals.

 

Several hours later, we scrimmaged against Del City, and we outscored them as handily as Ardmore outscored us. One of those goals came on this assist from Emilio to Sam.


The urgency of publishing videos was mitigated by the fact that every game was recorded in its entirety and posted on hudl.com. In theory I can download these videos, as I have the one above (though you have to endure an ad to see it) , but I didn't do that throughout the season, partly because Emilio believes that everyone notices when you grab a clip from hudl, and he doesn't want me to draw too much attention to him. In time, as I became confident that every game was being recorded, I took a position on the sideline to take closer shots from an angle not provided by the official game cameras.
   
The Hockey Assist: From Emilio to Jonah to Taylor. I don't know if there is a term for the Hockey Assist, once-removed, it would go to Sal, who fed Emilio with a back-heel tap. 
Another representative play: Emilio makes a good run here and finds himself alone in front of an open net. Taylor was our number-one goal scorer on the season (I believe he set a school record), but he didn't sneak this one through.