Well I am writing this late and can hardly wait to write about the Sherwood Soccer Tournament this past weekend. However, this is another answer to prayer.
Well going into this week we had a deadline to get the 8 acres ready to play a home game on Thursday. I can say that our AD has worried about this since the fall. He has had determined persistence to get the soccer field done in time for girls soccer. He and others have chipped away at the field. Well in the last month it finally started coming together. The families of the students came through again.
Sunday the field got cut by Landscape Smart. This revealed stumps, unlevel spots, bare spots, and holes. The field was in pretty bad shape! Needless to say it was unplayable.
Monday the dirt came in. It was the wrong type of soil, but we had to use it anyway. We solicited help from parents to help Monday and Tuesday to help spread dirt in the holes. Monday we had one parent show up. Tuesday the baseball team came out to help spread dirt. The field was still unplayable. Mr. Faithful(Guess who) chalked the field on Tuesday. Goals were put into place too.
Wednesday it rained all day. The field was soaked, standing water, and the soil that we were using was red clay. I asked a well known soccer coach to review the field to see it was safe to play on. He said, “It was unplayable”. Wednesday night the AD was mowing the wet grass around the edges with a push mower. Note: At this point, it was looking like their was no possible way we were going to play. The field was soaked, there was standing water, the red clay saturated and slippery, and there was huge ruts left by trucks right in front of the goal. Plus we had some some respectable advise not to play on the field.
Thursday, the plan was to come out around 10 am, check the field, and the weather and determine whether or not to play. We checked the field, it was messy and soggy. So the AD called Covenant and he told them that the field was wet and a work in progress. He said his girls wanted to come an play anyway. So it was on. Well the plan was to get some seniors that were leaving early to help spread the dirt. Well we ended with some juniors and seniors. Around 12:30 pm we started putting dirt on the field. We almost moved a whole dump truck full of dirt with 2 wheel barrels within 3 hours. We had teams of shovelers, wheelbarrelers, rooters, rakers, and a fourwheeler to pack the dirt down. By 3:30 Covenant arrived and the guys rolled off the field just in time. I say completed, but to the best we could have possibly done.
So the coach unloaded his girls, there was 22 of them. We have 10 players. Well asked the coach one more time if he wanted to play on the field, he said, “Sure we have played on worse.” The refs came, they didn’t say it, but as they picked up a few sticks the expression on their face was like “Are your for real playing on this field?” . LOL The other team found a piece of wood and filled in a hole for us. LOL
Well we started playing. We lost 8-2. The girls got to play in the mud. We scored our first two goals!!! We had a great time. Then it was off to eat spaghetti and get ready for the Sherwood Tournament.
Covenant had a strong team and they are a great school. We love them.
The bottom line: God answered a huge prayer through his people. We finally have a soccer field on the 8 acres and we have played a game there.
We it still has a long way to go, but it is a start!
For those who didn’t believe we would have a soccer team and program, please start having faith in the future. We need contributors to the vision.
Thanks,
Coach
