2024-07-14 B11 Black vs HSA B11 Shelland (3-0) - Cornucopia Cup Champs!

The boys won the Cornucopia Cup! Great job to the kids on a stellar showing. Lots of new kids on the team this year, and it's looking like it's going to be a fun year of growth and good soccer for everyone.
UPDATE: The boys did eventually get their trophy and medals mailed out for the win that we weren't able to pick up at the tournament. Still frustrating that the other team was allowed to ruin the experience for us on the day of the win instead of it being handled properly.
The experience wasn't great though, due to the poor sportsmanship showed by the HSA Select B11 Shelland coaches who started employing unsportsmanlike efforts to ruin the event for our boys when they realized they weren't going to win. It's a summer tournament which allows for guest players. We had two kids in red shirts with no numbers on the field, one was a guest player, and one was new to the club and hadn't received his kit yet. The rules clearly state that uniforms need to have the same color shirts, and that numbers on the shirts are recommended but not mandated. The man and woman coaches of the Shelland team decided when they were down 3-0 in the second half, that they would stop the game and tell the ref that those two players needed to be removed from the field because they didn't have numbers on their shirts, despite that not being a rule. It's like they never played in a summer tournament before, and don't understand that guest players don't have club kits. But the ref allowed it, to keep the coaches happy. Then they demanded a roster check, because even though we played them two days before and beat them by the same amount with the exact same kids, in their minds the only way they could lose is if the we were cheating. They claimed that we must have swapped out the kids with no shirt numbers, and that's the only way we were beating them in the finals. And not to disparage those two boys, but neither scored any goals, and while they were solid good players, neither would be accused of being massive game changers, it was really a ridiculous accusation that held no merit. Then after the game, even though the Valor tournament rules state that no protests are allowed, they took the Valor director aside and spent at least an hour complaining to them that we must have been cheating since they lost, and the Valor director wouldn't look at the rules, or even talk to our coach until they were done with the Highline Select coaches, which lasted forever. We were not able to get our medals and trophies because the Valor director and the HSA Select B11 Shelland coaches continued their conversations while we sat in the sun, waiting for an opportunity to respond. Our rosters were 100% accurate and legitimate, but they wasted so much time that all our kids ended up leaving the venue and going home without medals or trophies. It's not worth our time to deal with such petty people who want to ruin things for others instead of focusing on coaching their team. Even the kids on their team were saying "Oh boy, here we go again" when the coaches started talking to the refs about shirt numbers. I am embarrassed for the kids who have to see that type of behavior from adults in a position of authority. And if my kids ever landed on a team with coaches like that, we would be gone in a heartbeat. I'm proud of our coaches values, and of our kids efforts, and all the hard work they put in to grow as soccer players and as quality human beings. All parents should be seeking out clubs that teach positive values in addition to just soccer training. There are so many options in the area that nobody should have to be coached by the kind of people who go the extra mile to hurt the opposing team when they lose. Kids need to learn how to win gracefully and how to lose gracefully. Whenever we lose, we shake the hands of the opponents and wish them well. But kids won't learn that if the coaches are allowed to set an example of petty and vindictive behavior.
I know it's not a huge deal to not get the trophy and medals, the kids only keep them for a week or so before they focus on more important things. But it is frustrating to watch grown adults go on an irrational vendetta to try to make a bunch of 13 year old kids have a bad experience. And it's frustrating that the tournament allowed those coaches with no foundation for their accusations to break the rules of the their own tournament in order to derail what should have been a good day for the kids by delaying things so long that it wasn't worth staying to receive the medals. But at the end of the day, we played hard, showed our strengths and won the games. And even though they didn't get the opportunity to take a photo with the trophy and medals that every other winning team was allowed to get, we get to walk away from the weekend proud of who we are, and proud of our behavior both on and off the field. And that is what matters most.