The kids stay in the picture.
After two tournaments in the Seattle area, the boys of the Magnolia Monkeys have qualified to go to the Kick-It Soccer Shootout World Championships in Orlando, Fla., at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.
The team is in the U8, or 8-years-old and younger, division and comprises Magnolia residents Ryan Orr, Wyatt Paul, Alex Larsen, Sam Kopf, Johnny Ochsner and Daniel Merz.
The Kick-It Soccer Shootout holds tournaments across the nation and provides young soccer players a change of pace from the standard style of play. There are no goalies in tournament matches. All games are played three-on-three on 30-yard by 40-yard fields with 4-foot by 8-foot goals.
The boys in the Monkeys all play on different teams in the Magnolia Soccer Club league, but the Kick-It tournament provided them with a reason to bring their talents together.
"The boys'll never play together on a Magnolia Soccer Club team," said Isabelle Ochsner, Johnny's mother, "because in Magnolia Soccer they have to spread out the talent. You can't stack your team because other teams won't be able to compete."
For the brief period of time that they've played together, the Monkeys have been coached by 17-year-old Stephen Little and Paul Merz, Daniel's father and official "Monkey Mover."
"Each of these kids has been the dominant player of his respective team," Merz explained, "so they've always played against each other. They haven't had the opportunity to work as a team until Kick-It."
The Monkeys have been playing together for two weeks. During that time, they've practiced five times. At their first Kick-It tournament on Saturday, July 30, in Tukwila, they went undefeated after playing five games in the sweltering heat.
"Their first game was at 8:30 a.m., and the last game finished around 7 p.m.," Merz said. "They played five games in 85 degree weather. I couldn't believe that they were able to stand up after exerting all that energy. The parents, we were just sitting out there watching and I was physically and mentally drained from the whole thing. Their ability to bounce back is just amazing."
"All these other teams that had done it before had these big tents set up," Ochsner said. "We'd never done this before. We just threw these kids together at the last second and said 'let's do a tournament.' The other teams all had uniforms and matching outfits. Our kids just showed up in their t-shirts, came together and kicked butt."
The second regional Kick-It tournament took place in Bremerton on Saturday, Aug. 6. Due to a dearth of U8 teams signed up to play, the Monkeys were pitted against teams from the U9 and U10 divisions.
"We faced kids who were a lot older, a lot larger and had played together a lot more," Merz said. "Our kids range in size from about 40 pounds up to about 90 pounds. We played a couple of teams where the kids weighed more than 100 pounds.
"So, every one of our kids was giving up a lot of size and weight," he added. "You don't think about that kind of stuff until you start seeing bodies flying all over the place. But they hung in there and played their hearts out."
At the end of the day, the Monkeys had tied one game and lost three. Lost, but not by much.
"They showed really well," Merz said. "I think the worst score was 5-3. The kids were disappointed because they'd done so well in the first round and had expected to do equally as well the second time. They were disappointed for about 30 seconds and then realized that they'd still placed second in the region in their age-group and qualified to go to Orlando, which is a tremendous accomplishment for six kids who've played together for less than two weeks.
Merz said the team had a good experience overall. "They won everything the first week but, in losing, I think they learned a lot more about themselves the second week," he said. "They found out that they could hold their own against bigger kids."
The championships in Orlando will take place in January next year. Ochsner said she is looking forward to a more even playing field.
"In Bremerton," she said, "our team was going up against these huge kids, so it really wasn't very fair. I looked up the Orlando tournament from last year and there were at least 12 U8 teams that participated, so it'll be good fun for the Monkeys to be able to play other kids their own age."
"The kids are really the ones who deserve all the credit for their success," Merz said. "They have worked very, very hard. Regardless of what happens in Orlando, they've qualified to be there, which is an accomplishment in itself."[[In-content Ad]]
