more on last week

Maybe it should read Mor-On last week, oh the best laid plans, etc
After the lengthy recap of day 1 of Noah's excursion to Milwaukee Wave Soccer Camp, I feel compelled to offer brief "father's Eye" view of the remainder of the week, as I have been stewing on a few other topics to write about.

Needless to say with the temperatures in the 80's all week, Noah's sweat level was high from hours of running around the soccer field. For those of you that may say "Soccer is not interesting to watch", I encourage you to take in some viewing of 75 6-15 year olds running around the fields; kicking, passing and trying to score goals.

Each day of last week started between 8:40-9:00am with the kids arriving and immediately dropping their red Puma soccer balls onto the still dewy grass of Hawthorne Park...and it was off to the races as boy and girls of all skill levels dribbled, kicked, shot and juggled balls across the field.
The whistle sounds and everyone stops what they are doing and assembles under the one large shady spot in the park, under a large tree, for their initial instructions for the morning from Camp Director Michael King.

Fast forward to the middle part of the afternoon...parent begin to arrive as each age group is dispersed around the park, working on a variety of skills or in the middle of a scrimmage, or a game of "World Cup". After a full day of soccer action, many of the young, World Cup wannabes are winded, tired and ready for a break, while a handful of others are still running like the Olympic gold medal was in the balance.

Once again the whistle sounds, and each of the budding soccer stars scrambles to collect soccer balls, water bottles, cones, nets and anything else strewn across the park. Just as in the morning, the kids assemble under the cooling shade of that one tree for a recap of the day that was and instructions for the next day. The red faces shows the level of exercise these children faced throughout the day.

Back to Noah...each day we would retreat to the comfort of the air conditioning of our Dodge Grand Caravan..and Noah will release a full recap of what happened that day. More often than not, the stories would be filled with quips about Deco and Chico, the two Brazilian players that were coaches for the week's training. After a couple of minutes, Noah's head would begin to slump to one side, as the adrenaline of the day wore off and his body finally succumbed to the rest that was needed.

Friday was the one day I was not able to witness the ending of the camp day, as I was 2 hours to the north. Friday was a shorter day, ending at 1pm, with the campers getting to enjoy "graduation" from camp, but also a special Water day. Dozens of different types of water gun paraphernalia arrived the morning from many of the campers, in anticipation of the after-lunch activity of chasing coaches and other kids with the Super Soakers.

Needless to say...Noah will cherish his time at Milwaukee Wave camp, the friends he made, the time spent with Wave players and the new skills he learned. If you have a son or daughter between the ages of 5-15, I encourage you to look into the Wave Summer Camps...it is well worth the minimal investment.
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I will post later on some of the things that have been on my mid, including the Brewers/Cubs series that kicks off tonight, the upcoming Olympics (huge news...Paul Hamm is out [see story here], and more)
Also...expect a podcast/story about an upcoming event involving Soccer Tennis!