But do I love the miserable cold and windy weather that has about a 95% chance of turning up at 3pm on a Friday afternoon despite the fact it was very likely sunny, warm and still at five minutes to 3? Not so much. And do I sometimes wish for a relaxing Friday afternoon instead of spending two hours stood on the sidelines in the blowing Wellington wind - you betcha!
I got asked to take some team photos on the last day for Mylo's team so I took the opportunity to take some action shots of them on the field during the game too and then figured while I was at I should probably capture some of Noah's team as well.
Mylo's team was almost entirely made up of kids in his class. In fact we actually managed to field two teams this year and had quite a few derby games where the two teams were pitted off against each other. The teams were pretty well matched too with a draw a win and a loss from our previous three encounters against them. As we were sitting 2nd and 3rd on the table, we then had to play them again in the semi-final and unfortunately our team was having a bit of an off day and we got thrashed 6-0. They then lost the grand final to a team that hadn't been beaten all season so were all a bit down afterwards whereas we won our 3rd/4th place play-off (helped by Mylo's 3 goals) 3-0 and finished on a high for the last game.
I love that I managed to catch one of the kids giving his twin sister a smooch while they waited on the halfway line for the goal-kick, so cute!
Funny story too - the kids are meant to wear the team t-shirts (which I've blanked out for privacy reasons) with the team logo on the back, but on the first week when I was given the task of handing them out I didn't realise this and sent a couple of kids out in the middle with the logo on the front and then it just kinda stuck!
This was the 2nd year Noah's team had played together, originally made up entirely of kids from their class back then in late 2013 (when they were Years 1 and 2). This year they regrouped but it took them a while to find their mojo as a team as in the first half of the season the younger kids in the team were still in the junior syndicate whereas the others were in different classes and so hadn't had as much interaction with each other at school. I certainly noticed a big difference in their teamwork and team play come the 2nd half of the season when they were all back in each other's classes again. A few weeks back we were looking to finish well down the lower end of the table but a few good results in a row meant that on the last game we were playing for 5th/6th place against a team who I remember playing before Christmas which we were very evenly matched against and lost 4-3. Our kids gave it their all in this game and helped by our star striker Charlie, we managed to win 5-3 to end the season on a great high.
Both the boys also got MVP in their final game which was a great testament to their determination and efforts throughout the season.
Now they are already waiting with great anticipation for the winter football football season to roll on - which starts in a month's time!
