Author: awesomegadgetsnz

The day started so early with Del waking up everybody at 5am. We had to remind him that the matches were to commence at 9am, and asked him to get back to sleep. By 7am , Del and his sister had already changed and ready to go. This time mum, made sure she wouldnt miss the action and was part of the entrourage to the Massey Parks grounds.

On Saturday we had a tournament and we played against 9 teams.The first team was called the navy seals, Del was introduced into the game after they had already conceded 2 goals.

End of Year 2020 was quiet a difficult time in our lives. I lost my brother, to respiratory complications in Zimbabwe. Misheck was a great inspiration to Del on his taking up of football as his passion. Only our last visit home, kicking the ball around was their way of bonding in. During the year, there had been no notable football games or play for him to engage in due to the corona virus. We took a precaution approach of not engaging a lot in crowd activities. Nevertheless we still allowed Del to attend one or two sessions at the Drury Football Club.

As the new year came,his mum in her internet searches came across the Ricki Herbert Football Academy, and made the undertaking that in memory of my brother, the best we can do for Del in his quest to be a professional footballer as he put it, at least we should be prepared to invest more in his talent. At the same time we would allow Rin his sister to take up swimming lessons as well as she seemed to have a more keen swimmer than Del has ever been. And so we signed up for Del, to join this elite academy.

Del had been part of the Waiuku Soccer Development But somehow in all the times that he has been there, I strongly felt that he wasn’t getting the attention that his talent deserved. It seemed he was there primarily to assist the other kids to play and achieve the level he was at instead of further developing his own. In addition to that there was some sort of ganging up where in principle once he is position of a ball, all the kids, would quickly want him to release it to them whilst unfortunately they wouldn’t voluntarily pass the balls to him. From my perspective the coaches needed to manage that aspect of play, but it seemed not to have been an issue with them. I raised that with the coach, who just downplayed it and the kids power play continued. When Del raised the issue as well, I simply encouraged him not to pass the ball away unnecessarily, which is contrary to any football spirit to built in your child.

So when the Ricki Herbert Academy came about, we lurched on it as an opportunity to keep providing him a chance to further develop his skill.So today 11 February 2021, is his first day, possibly not much will happen, as it would be more an introduction to the academy and how everything works. I will take the afternoon off so that I could drive him there, with mum and Rin, and hopefully this will be considered as his start to a professional football career in the next phase of his life.

Due to Covid 19 we took the position that Del would not be attending the Waiuku Soccer Academy during the periods when it was deemed safe to do so. It turned the academy coaches continued with soccer practise during these times, and I allowed Del to take a break off it. Ofcourse concern has been whether he has been missing out on anything. I doubt that very much, as he seem to also keep himself busy by playing soccer during their breaks at school.

One thing I have noticed about him, is that he is preety much like I was when i was young.Used to listen to the coaches a lot, sometimes I always wonder whether that killed my creativity in my style of play. Coaches normally want players to play in a regimented manner, such that at a young age, once you get into that space of not using your own head on what you can or want to do with the ball, it may take a while to get out of it.

This is where Drury Summer Soccer comes out for me. It preety much like a boozers club, and it gave Del the opportunity to play freely and express himself with the ball, the way he feels like with no one shouting for the ball from him which he would have arduously worked to gain position of.

https://youtu.be/amQNcseD_V4

The return match with the Purple Burgans started on a slippery slope for the Red Robbins.The Burgans had a plan, and as usual the Robbins had none, theirs was just to kick the ball around.I had initially planned to take a back seat watching and recording the match.Del’s sister Rin had electrd to stay home with mum, in anticipation of a friend who was coming for a play date.I was hopping I would watch and capture Del in action.But that was not be. The Burgans plan was nice and simple.Their coach had a player who could unleash a shot always hogging the front line and have others work for her to tap in the balls.And thats what they did netting in 3 with no reply and leaving the Red Robbins looking like a confused coacroaches.

So eventually when Del was asked to take a break, I decided to drop the spectator Dad attitude and get involved in pumping him.I reminded Del on his break that he had a duty to score, and he can only do that if he moves with the ball forward.He had somehow resorted to defending, and in the mist of trying to be a defender he conceaded a silly goal when he cleared a ball which bounced back into his net.

During the second phase of the match Learnmore Ndemera came to join us, immediately after Del managed to break his first goal, which he characteristically tapped from a distant.Lucky goal it was, but it simply was what he wanted to get him going.Somehow the new field at Waiuku George Street School had quiet a lot of turf, which seemed to have been tiring him a lot faster, or was it the Burgants strategy, which they finally found an answer to.

After that first goal, i kept up the encouragement to Del, shouting and screaming on top of my voice, reminding him to watch the ball and not mind about man marking. He always has this tendency of taking on the man, but at this level where some of the kids have no idea of where to place the ball, its just a no brainer as he get to miss easy balls that simply fall on his lap. The coach and parents from the Burgans were encouraging their kids to try to grab the ball off Del in their droves as they all appreciated that Del was the driver of the team.One of the parents acknowledged to me me that I had talent in my son.Proudly responded offcourse. As a result I also had to up my encouragement to Del.The presents of Learnmore also gave Del some umph and so he was so much prepared to show off to him too.He was so happy to see him

Thus 3 more goals, Del managed to tap in mostly from a distance, as that seemed to be a strategy to work.And they went 4 all.Courtesy of a Del clearance, Chidebhumu tapped in to make it 5-4.What a match, and how much change Del brings in when he steps up a notch.

As I have generally observed, the other kids in his team have improved such that at least they can now retain the ball without conceading easily.But they are still clueless as to what they can do with the ball, which is where normally Del comes in,picks up the ball and moves with the ball forward.Today he was a bit overwhelmed struggling to keep pace and could not manage to dribble as he normally does. He also got to be a defender, midfielder and stricker such that it just becomes too much for his little frame.He could have played better but he still did well by netting the goals which preety much somes up a match after its done.Despite all the sweat and pain Del put in, the coach and Laurah opted to give other kids player of the day and month awards.Of which for Del it was just another day of playing ball.Didn’t matter.

The new school term commenced with the return of the games prior to the opening day.After a long two weeks holiday break and not enough opportunity to kick the ball around,meant Del had so much energy to burn in his reserved.As per normal Saturday morning rituals, overdressing the sister, packing some food etc, we set off to the ground.Earlier in the morning there has been some confusion as to wether we would use the Massey Park Grounds or the George Street School playgrounds.As for us we were not sure if the games would proceed as well as it had been pouring in the morning.We got a confirmation from the team manager Laurah that the games will go on and so we proceeded to the Massey Park grounds.

Surprisingly Del’s team was peached with the Navy Seals, not so sure if the format of the games have return matches, but definitely they had played the Navy Seals in their maiden match.And so it made sense that it was a return match. One thing for sure was there was a clear difference between two teams.Red Robbins had 4 girls and 4 boys and Navy Seals had 10 boys.The ensthuasistic coach was back and and prior to the match he took the lads through an awesome drill, where essentially everyone including the Red Robbins took some time to just watch and enjoy.They had lots of energy, and were also stoic.Luckly Del wasnt even fussed by their fancy warm ups he was just wanted to get on with it.

As expected the Navy Seals managed to score first before Del’s team had settled.Despite the set back, the match was quiet well balanced with the Red Robbins appearing as if they had a plan of some sort. Laurah’s son Kobbie stayed all the while at the back playing sweeper, whilst Del as usual had a roving role,

The forced one week break seemed to have done its trick.Any misbehaviour was always directed to the potential of missing the next training session.We even went on to ask him to put in writting why he thought we had forced him to miss training and a match the previous week.He glad did that and each and everyday he kept on reflecting on it.As a child ofcourse he will always have his moments.The first days of the week were not just cold but desperately pouring.As usual, the Massey Football fields got socked and training was cancelled.That made the wait for Del to kick the ball longer and the anticipation stronger.

So come Saturday 6th July 2019, the little boy virtually woke up everybody by 7am.As usual, went through the ritual of overdressing the sister Rin, whilst he put on some inner skin tights we had bought him to help dealing with the cold, especially when waiting to play.As a result we found ourselves a bit early for the match, that we had to wait for other parents to arrive.In the meantime we stayed in the car, causing more itchness on his part, even the sister joined in the protest to just want to get out.So when the bulk of the football loving community had arrived, we went out to join them.

The team and the parents were happy to see Del present.It turned out the previous weekend, they played the Green Geckos and they were thrashed 10-0.That showed how much of a big difference and force Del is to the team.For me ot also meant I didnt have to make them look at Del beyond what he is capable of.Just give the lad his due.So it seems, his absence in a way settled it. Super Del was back.

As usual the start was characterised by uncoordinated kicking back nd forth of the ball, which somehow resulted in the Purple Lizards getting an early goal, which also suprised them.So I urged Del, to pick up his game to equalise. One thing particular about the Purple Lizards is that they were well coordinated in going back to block off any goals into the net.But with a bit of incessant forays, Del eventually scored the opener for his team and dad was trully relieved.Del was back, and he notched another 2 to get his team to a comfortable win on his return.

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