Winter soccer was always brutal. Our HS field was out on top of a damn hill and the winds were always brutal, but I'll never forget my first Varsity game.

Mid December in the early 2000s and we had an away game against a very fancy private school in Austin. Its my high schools first year having soccer so we barely had jerseys that year. We show up in Austin for that 7PM kickoff and the temps were hanging around 20-25 degrees with some wind. Our water cooler froze during the match. We didn't have matching winter wear (gloves/beanies/undershirts) and the center ref threw a fit about it. We all ended up playing in just the basic kit. The other team all had matching clothes and everything. I think we looked like the poor Little Giants or something. I remember my hair and jersey both having ice in it from the sweat freezing. I remember scoring, but I'm pretty sure we lost like 5-2 or something

I'm still not 100% sure. That is what my daughter said after the game. It was a ball into the box that was headed in. I think he thought she missed it with her head and it was an indirect kick that went in the goal. It was a solid 5 minutes of back and forth and talking and I don't think anyone in the stands understood what the hell had happened. It was a straight forward ball into the box and headed in and nobody could figure out why he blew the whistle as it was pretty obviously headed.

Jim01 said:

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I'm still not 100% sure. That is what my daughter said after the game. It was a ball into the box that was headed in. I think he thought she missed it with her head and it was an indirect kick that went in the goal. It was a solid 5 minutes of back and forth and talking and I don't think anyone in the stands understood what the hell had happened. It was a straight forward ball into the box and headed in and nobody could figure out why he blew the whistle as it was pretty obviously headed.

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That makes more sense.

We're playing in the 7 Lakes bracket of the I10 shootout this weekend and the weather doesn't look too bad. Looking forward to playing the better 6As

SCHTICK00 said:

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We're playing in the 7 Lakes bracket of the I10 shootout this weekend and the weather doesn't look too bad. Looking forward to playing the better 6As

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Well good think you're not in North Texas this weekend.

Good luck. We're in the Cinco Ranch bracket.

Jim01 said:

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I'm still not 100% sure. That is what my daughter said after the game. It was a ball into the box that was headed in. I think he thought she missed it with her head and it was an indirect kick that went in the goal. It was a solid 5 minutes of back and forth and talking and I don't think anyone in the stands understood what the hell had happened. It was a straight forward ball into the box and headed in and nobody could figure out why he blew the whistle as it was pretty obviously headed.

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The kick was indirect. The trail official saw the touch. The lead didn't and he waived the goal off. They got it worked out and gave the goal.

Jim01 said:

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Just played a tournament in College Station this past weekend. Not a ball person in sight! And took them a few games to realize, "Maybe we should put a couple balls behind the goal at the beginning of each half." Eventually little brothers made their way down to the track and were shagging balls.

As for the cold, one of my Christmas gifts was a heated vest. Used it for the first time this weekend!

Ref wise we had one guy that called a lot but was also very nice. In the first half the other team complained on an obstruction call, then he yelled "I'll explain at halftime" and sure enough came over and explained the rule and why he called it. It was also nice to have a ref that would admit he could make mistakes. In explaining obstruction he said "a lot of time you all have a better angle than me, so maybe I'm wrong, but all I have to go on is my angle". There was also a weird sequence where we scored, he blew it off because there was confusion on indirect vs direct, our captain complained, got a yellow card and goal kick awarded. He stopped the clock and talked to other ref and then announced "My mistake. My fault. No card, Goal awarded."

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I am always baffled that a sport where there are literally 10-12 balls in a bag but a ball kicked into the hinterlands behind the goals requires a 5 minute Tolkien like journey when they could just keep a couple of the 48 balls they have on the bench behind each goal.

Imagine having only one football or baseball for a game.

Home team is supposed to provide a good amount of game balls… just like they're supposed to provide ball boys. But yeah…

Mustang1 said:

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Jesuit is pretty loaded but 7 Lakes is on another level.

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Strake Jesuit or Jesuit in Dallas?

In this context, probably Strake.

Knucklesammich said:

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Jim01 said:

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Just played a tournament in College Station this past weekend. Not a ball person in sight! And took them a few games to realize, "Maybe we should put a couple balls behind the goal at the beginning of each half." Eventually little brothers made their way down to the track and were shagging balls.

As for the cold, one of my Christmas gifts was a heated vest. Used it for the first time this weekend!

Ref wise we had one guy that called a lot but was also very nice. In the first half the other team complained on an obstruction call, then he yelled "I'll explain at halftime" and sure enough came over and explained the rule and why he called it. It was also nice to have a ref that would admit he could make mistakes. In explaining obstruction he said "a lot of time you all have a better angle than me, so maybe I'm wrong, but all I have to go on is my angle". There was also a weird sequence where we scored, he blew it off because there was confusion on indirect vs direct, our captain complained, got a yellow card and goal kick awarded. He stopped the clock and talked to other ref and then announced "My mistake. My fault. No card, Goal awarded."

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I am always baffled that a sport where there are literally 10-12 balls in a bag but a ball kicked into the hinterlands behind the goals requires a 5 minute Tolkien like journey when they could just keep a couple of the 48 balls they have on the bench behind each goal.

Imagine having only one football or baseball for a game.

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Yea, it's all dictated by the rules. Says home team provided 3 game balls. Period. no caveats or exceptions.

Rules also say home team is supposed to provide ball chasers.

Someone earlier mentioned about matching uniforms and the rules dictate that too. it even dictates undergarments. It's pretty hardcore if the rules are enforced literally. Most refs don't though. The game needs balls, so the balls are inspected and 3 are chosen. But the game doesn't need ball chasers, so if they aren't supplied, it tends to be ignored and the game waits for the frozen GK to chase the ball.

jessexy said:

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Knucklesammich said:

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Jim01 said:

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Just played a tournament in College Station this past weekend. Not a ball person in sight! And took them a few games to realize, "Maybe we should put a couple balls behind the goal at the beginning of each half." Eventually little brothers made their way down to the track and were shagging balls.

As for the cold, one of my Christmas gifts was a heated vest. Used it for the first time this weekend!

Ref wise we had one guy that called a lot but was also very nice. In the first half the other team complained on an obstruction call, then he yelled "I'll explain at halftime" and sure enough came over and explained the rule and why he called it. It was also nice to have a ref that would admit he could make mistakes. In explaining obstruction he said "a lot of time you all have a better angle than me, so maybe I'm wrong, but all I have to go on is my angle". There was also a weird sequence where we scored, he blew it off because there was confusion on indirect vs direct, our captain complained, got a yellow card and goal kick awarded. He stopped the clock and talked to other ref and then announced "My mistake. My fault. No card, Goal awarded."

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I am always baffled that a sport where there are literally 10-12 balls in a bag but a ball kicked into the hinterlands behind the goals requires a 5 minute Tolkien like journey when they could just keep a couple of the 48 balls they have on the bench behind each goal.

Imagine having only one football or baseball for a game.

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Yea, it's all dictated by the rules. Says home team provided 3 game balls. Period. no caveats or exceptions.

Rules also say home team is supposed to provide ball chasers.

Someone earlier mentioned about matching uniforms and the rules dictate that too. it even dictates undergarments. It's pretty hardcore if the rules are enforced literally. Most refs don't though. The game needs balls, so the balls are inspected and 3 are chosen. But the game doesn't need ball chasers, so if they aren't supplied, it tends to be ignored and the game waits for the frozen GK to chase the ball.

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My favorite is a corner kick that goes all the way to the back of the stadium. And the CB is the one taking the corner. No one goes to get the ball so the CB jobs half the field to the goal line then half the field to get the ball, then all the way back.

How'd the I-10 go? Was anyone in Georgetown or Austin?

𝐔𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥’𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐫
🚨 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘰𝘱 25 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩’𝘴 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴🚨
———- January 16th, 2024 ———- pic.twitter.com/Bxy5AOSdnd

— Lethal Enforcer Texas HS Soccer (@LethalSoccer) January 17, 2024

Region 1 has won 8 out of the last 10 state championships.

Dallas simply dominates at both the high school and club level. It's amazing.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dallas simply dominates at both the high school and club level. It's amazing.

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The district defensive MVP for a 4A district is on my daughters club team. And last season was literally the worst player on her club team.

4 of the top 10 are in my daughters district in 6A.

Rudyjax said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dallas simply dominates at both the high school and club level. It's amazing.

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The district defensive MVP for a 4A district is on my daughters club team. And last season was literally the worst player on her club team.

4 of the top 10 are in my daughters district in 6A.

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I am curious why that is so funny. 4A schools have 1/3-1/4 the number of students. That's why there are different classifications. This comes from someone whose daughters played at 4A on a team that regularly beat 5A and 6A teams.

DFW has ridiculous talent in soccer, and much matriculates down to smaller classifications.

Aston94 said:

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Rudyjax said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dallas simply dominates at both the high school and club level. It's amazing.

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The district defensive MVP for a 4A district is on my daughters club team. And last season was literally the worst player on her club team.

4 of the top 10 are in my daughters district in 6A.

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I am curious why that is so funny. 4A schools have 1/3-1/4 the number of students. That's why there are different classifications. This comes from someone whose daughters played at 4A on a team that regularly beat 5A and 6A teams.

DFW has ridiculous talent in soccer, and much matriculates down to smaller classifications.

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I was laughing about 4 of the top 10 in the one district in 6A.

I edited the post to include the district mvp and didn't realize my emoticon.

I-10 went pretty well for us.

Lost to Bridgeland - 0-4
Beat Pasadena Memorial - 5-1
Beat Cinco Ranch - 1-0

We are 4-2 with our only two losses to Bridgeland who is ranked #2 in 6A-R2 and to A&M Consolidated who is #1 in 5A-R3. Not too shabby.

It's funny because watching Bridgeland I didn't think they were that great but I was comparing to club. My daughter is a freshman so this is our first go round seeing HS competition. We have three senior GA girls (including two D1 commits), one junior GA, and then my daughter. It really jumps out how much of a team sport soccer is when that's your core. They play well but ultimately you have to try to connect with a girl who isn't at their level and things fall apart. Bridgeland and A&M clearly had club player at most spots, if not everywhere, and that just makes such a huge difference when you have competency at each position.

Weak positions really can get exposed in high school for sure.

SCHTICK00 said:

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My kid plays for Consol and we're definitely high on talent this year. So much so that we have RL players on JV.

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You don't have a chance to make the team JV1 if you're below RL at my daughter's school. 7 ECNL sophomores and freshman on JV1.

Every starter on the varsity will play D2/ D1 if they want to with about 5 playing major conferences.

Going to the state tournament was always a revelation. Coaching and living in Houston, you get used to watching the good teams down there and then get shocked by the next level of the DFW teams. The difference is present in the boys teams too but it's definitely more stark in the girls. Some of the best 5/6a girls teams in Houston have college players sprinkled all through their lineups. The DFW teams at those same classification field 11 college players and then have another 5-6 on the bench.

My daughter will probably never play on varsity and plays RL. And could play NAIA/D3 and maybe D2 if she wanted.

Never understood why HS soccer is played in the dead winter. Makes sense to move it to later in spring ? I can't imagine why they would not right ?

#1 Team in the state via coaches poll has their keeper tear their ACL at an ID camp.

Starting a freshman in district today.

Oh no. Is she short?

Rudyjax said:

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#1 Team in the state via coaches poll has their keeper tear their ACL at an ID camp.

Starting a freshman in district today.

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It happens. Consol girls last year were undefeated and unscored on in district last year. And lost their GK in the last district game of the season to a knee injury from friendly fire.

jeffk said:

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Oh no. Is she short?

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Let's just say they're going from one of the best keepers in the state to a less experienced unknown.

Mathguy64 said:

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Rudyjax said:

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#1 Team in the state via coaches poll has their keeper tear their ACL at an ID camp.

Starting a freshman in district today.

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It happens. Consol girls last year were undefeated and unscored on in district last year. And lost their GK in the last district game of the season to a knee injury from friendly fire.

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It happens but it sucks.

jessexy said:

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jeffk said:

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Going to the state tournament was always a revelation. Coaching and living in Houston, you get used to watching the good teams down there and then get shocked by the next level of the DFW teams. The difference is present in the boys teams too but it's definitely more stark in the girls. Some of the best 5/6a girls teams in Houston have college players sprinkled all through their lineups. The DFW teams at those same classification field 11 college players and then have another 5-6 on the bench.

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I got selected to referee at UIL State Championships 3 years in a row. I never got the chance to have the whistle on a championship game because every single title game (18 of them in total) had a DFW team playing.

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I think it's 14 out of 16 6A girls titles.

I'm just talking about the number of championship games while I was there. 4A girls and boys, 5A girls and boys, 6A girls and boys for 3 years. That's 18 total title games during my time where there was at least 1 DFW team in the championship game so any referee from Dallas or Tarrant chapters was ineligible to have the whistle.

jessexy said:

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I'm just talking about the number of championship games while I was there. 4A girls and boys, 5A girls and boys, 6A girls and boys for 3 years. That's 18 total title games during my time where there was at least 1 DFW team in the championship game so any referee from Dallas or Tarrant chapters was ineligible to have the whistle.

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Tuesday night. Why aren't you with the whistle?