Inside the season at Marie Reed Part V: Fall Frenzy success!

This fall, DC SCORES intern Mir’ed Asfour is following the boys and girls teams at Marie Reed Elementary School, the flagship school of our program. Check back each week for posts highlighting the students and coaches at Reed; detailing the successes and struggles of the season; and placing in the spotlight everything that goes on behind the scenes during a DC SCORES soccer season.

See photos from the season on Flickr. 

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Written by Mir’ed Asfour
DC SCORES Intern

“Coach Lacomba, I scored a goal, I scored a goal!”

Unbridled excitement and pride roared from the painted faces of the Marie Reed students, who had just completed their fourth and final set of games during the 15th Annual DC SCORES Fall Frenzy.

Reed super volunteer and alum Tanvir R. said of the boys team: “I’ve seen a lot of improvements in the communicating and passing. They’re not even looking and they know where each other are.”

Tanvir’s excitement from watching all the games was plastered across his face

“They’ve won all their games!” he pointed out animatedly.

Tanvir also mentioned the success of the girls team, saying, “The girls did well! I saw a lot of good passing, and they got a lot of goals.”

The Reed boys and girls teams also learned to play with each other when another school wasn’t present. Reed’s boys and girls teams split into four coed groups and scrimmaged, strengthening the bond between the two teams that normally don’t practice or play together.

The experience proved invaluable when Reed played a coed game against another school with fewer students.

“The first game we all played together we won 5-0 (boys) and the girls won 2-0, and then we split up because the other team had forfeited and we won all our games except the last one, which we tied,” said Jordan W. “Darnell finally made a goal!”

“It was awesome since I finally scored a goal,” Darnell B. said with a smile. “(But) my favorite part is when we faced Raymond because they’re a hard opponent, and we won.”

There was nothing but smiles on the faces of the Reed students as they headed for the bus at Anacostia Park. After a long, hard, soccer-filled day -- mixed in, of course, with relay races; haiku writing; dancing; and more -- it was clear that all of their practice and work had come to fruition.

Inside the season at Marie Reed Part IV: Target practice

This fall, DC SCORES intern Mir’ed Asfour is following the boys and girls teams at Marie Reed Elementary School, the flagship school of our program. Check back each week for posts highlighting the students and coaches at Reed; detailing the successes and struggles of the season; and placing in the spotlight everything that goes on behind the scenes during a DC SCORES soccer season.

See photos from the season on Flickr. 

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Written by Mir’ed Asfour
DC SCORES Intern

“Nice job, keep it up, keep it up.”

Finally, it was as if all the girls’ struggles suddenly disappeared. The girls dribbled, up and down the pitch, as Coach Lacomba praised them wholeheartedly. The girls, for the first time that I’ve seen, were able to maintain possession of the ball. No girls were caught chasing balls. No girls made Lacomba upset. Not once did I hear her say, “I’m not happy.”

Lacomba was enthused with the girls’ progress. She decided they didn’t need to devote as much time to dribbling and maintaining possession as they usually do; instead, she turned the girls’ attention to shooting the ball.

“I really want you to concentrate on getting your planter foot, lean over that ball, don’t go back, lean over, and bring your leg and hit it,” Lacomba instructed.

All great things take time, and it looks like the girls have found something new to work on -- shooting technique. As the drill began, balls veered toward the sideline rather than the goal. Lacomba instructed one girl after another to avoid leaning back when kicking the ball. Every girl shot the ball four times, twice against each of the two goalkeepers Lacomba rotated in. Of all the shots taken, only a handful traveled between the goal posts.

While the drill session continued, I noticed a girl watching from afar. Usually on Wednesdays the boys practice outside with the girls in the gym, but the boys had no practice so the girls were on the field with plenty of space for friends, fans and family observers.

“My name is Gabriella,” the girl said by way of introduction. “I graduated last year from Marie Reed and this year I go to Hardy Middle School, and I’m here because I just help out Ms. Lacomba with the girls. I actually miss this team, I really like playing soccer, and the fact that I don’t have soccer at my school … so I just like coming here and helping.”

Gabriella commented on the current state of the girls team:

“They’re getting better, they got really good players and they’re getting better. I think that goalie is getting better and the other goalie. The defense is looking very strong right now … They need to make more contact to each other, they need to talk, communicate more so they can pass the ball to each other.”

Gabriella then spoke about her team from last year before giving her thoughts on how the team practicing in front of her could improve.

“We had bigger girls, they were pretty good, we really communicated and we did well. They should communicate more, they should also get better at shooting goals. They use their toes; they should probably use the side of their foot. They’re improving, so I think they’re going to do well. I hope they get better.”

Gabriella also talked about her love of DC SCORES, saying: “It’s awesome. I like mostly the soccer part. I started playing since fourth grade and ever since I got really good at defense, and then they put me more at midfield and forward, and I really like it.”

As far as the poetry aspect of the program, Gabriella said, “I like it, it’s just that I’m not very good at poetry. I like going on stage and performing my poetry.”

While I conversed with Gabriella, the girls team took the field to scrimmage each other. The girls did a good job of maintaining possession, however they had some trouble passing. “Chin up,” Coach Lacomba repeated a few times, urging the girls to look where they were going and passing. Lacomba had to direct girls to their correct positions a few times, also.

It seemed as if there were few positives to take away from the scrimmage, until, in the last minute, a strike from one of the girls a few yards out zoomed past the goalie and hit the back of the net. As practice concluded, there was hope that the shooting technique they worked on and demonstrated in their scrimmage will be evident in their games going forward.

Lacomba ended practice after the beautiful shot and made a few final remarks, noting that the team needed to do a better job at “taking it easy, getting in position, looking around, and doing a nice pass.”

Lacomba also highlighted the performance of one of the new girls to join DC SCORES: “Nancy, for the third day, you’re doing pretty good on defense!

The Reed teams have a lot to look forward to with Fall Frenzy -- featuring a handful of soccer games against teams from throughout the District -- this Saturday. The games will offer more chances to hone their vastly improved dribbling skills and refine their shooting technique.

Inside the season at Marie Reed Part III: Ball control

This fall, DC SCORES intern Mir’ed Asfour is following the boys and girls teams at Marie Reed Elementary School, the flagship school of our program. Check back each week for posts highlighting the students and coaches at Reed; detailing the successes and struggles of the season; and placing in the spotlight everything that goes on behind the scenes during a DC SCORES soccer season.

See photos from the season on Flickr. 

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Written by Mir’ed Asfour
DC SCORES Intern

Passing, passing and more passing.

“When you are receiving the ball, I want you to move. As soon as you see your partner sending the ball, I want you to move to receive it,” Coach Lacomba explained as she introduced Reed’s girls to a dribbling and passing drill. “You’re going to dribble all the way down and come back, and when you get to the line, you pass the ball to your partner.”

As I walked into Reed’s gym, the afternoon’s agenda was made very clear. Passing and control was the emphasis of the day. The Reed girls continued to struggle maintaining possession of the ball, receiving passes and sending passes. For every pass that was successfully received, two or three rolled across the gym floor, in search of a foot.

As I noted last week, Lacomba has stressed that the girls don’t make themselves chase the ball. But once again, she was displeased with what she saw. “I’m not happy” was repeated several times throughout practice as inaccurate passes sent from one teammate to another traveled wide, causing the girls to run after the balls, over and over.

A positive note from the practice was the dramatic improvement in dribbling skills from last week. Praise from Lacomba was fired out to the girls left and right -- “Much better!” .. “Good form!” and “Nice footwork!”

“I have a very young team, only maybe two or three have played in the past,” Lacomba said. “I think that they’re working on their fundamentals. There is good spirit. I think that they are getting along very well, very enthusiastic. The rest is giving them the little experience that they need, giving them a chance to play and touch that ball more often, and continuing having fun.

“I think passing is one of our weakest points. They’re getting their footwork and dribbling a little bit good, but passing needs to be a little more consistent and more accurate. As you saw, most of our practice is geared toward passing.”

Lacomba did notice, however, that there has been improvement “in the real understanding of the basics of soccer. Some of them had trouble with basic rules, so now they’re grasping the basic rules. Moving the ball and talking to each other, I see an improvement. The spacing out is working out much better. They’re becoming more aware they cannot all run behind the ball.”

Coach Lacomba aspires for her team “to continue strengthening our skills, feeling more comfortable on the field and continuing having fun.”

As I walked from Reed’s gym, up a flight of stairs, out the door, and to their field where the boys were practicing, I ran into a familiar face. Tanvir R., whom I noticed observing the first practice I attended, was at the field to greet me.

Tanvir was helping Coach Lenaghan with several tasks, before briefly stopping by and updating me on the team’s performance.

“They got way better!” Tanvir proclaimed. “They’re good. All they need to do is communicate and pass -- they’ve won all the games they’ve played.”

Improvement, of course, is a never-ending process.

Lenaghan was recapping earlier drills in practice when I arrived, asking what the boys had learned thus far. Lenaghan asked the boys if the field was straight, which was replied to by a flurry of no’s.

“It’s our home field, it’s our home-field advantage,” he said. “I know that big dirt pile there that’s like a crater. I’m probably not going to want to put a ball there. It’s going to get caught up; our team won’t be able to get it.”

After the quick recap, the boys practiced dribbling up and down the field alternating their feet as fast as they could to practice ball possession. That drill was followed by a shielding drill, in which a ball was passed to one player, and a second defender would come in and attempt to steal it. The boys were to use the shielding technique that their coach taught to them the previous practice. If the player with the ball could shield it effectively, maintain possession, and stay in bounds for at least 10 seconds, the offense gets a point. If, on the other hand, the defender steals the ball, he gets the point.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on perspective, no offensive player was able to receive a point, which demonstrates the need to practice ball control more -- and indicates that Reed has a good defense.

As Tanvir noted, the boys needed to work on passing, which was next on Coach Lenaghan’s agenda. The boys were split into three groups, and two groups at a time took the field. One group would be given the ball with the sole purpose of maintaining possession by passing between one another.

Lenaghan counted the time as the offensive players dribbled and passed between each other. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, that was out! What was the mistake he made?” Lenaghan quizzed the team after the possession exchanged for the first time, “It was a nice drag back, but we’ll save the Messi move.”

The groups rotated back and forth, but none of them were able to beat the previous record set at a former practice. No group was able to get over 20 seconds, not even halfway to the previous record of 44 seconds. Passing and maintaining possession will continue to be a focal point as there is much room for improvement, regardless of the team being undefeated.

Coach Lenaghan ended practice optimistically after seeing his team struggle a bit.  

“Don’t be discouraged by what happened here with the passing,” he said. “... I think we just forgot some of the fundamentals we were doing on Friday because you guys were making really good runs off the ball. What I saw was kind of a lot of people standing there saying, ‘Give it to me, give it to me!’ but were not moving around.

“Tomorrow when we have our game, remember our positions, remember the size of the field, remember to use space. There is plenty of green or brown space here, so use it as well as you can. If we get bunched up, we won’t be able to use it as well.

“So let’s get a Reed on three!”

Inside the season at Marie Reed Elementary Part I: Preparing for Game Day

This fall, DC SCORES intern Mir’ed Asfour is following the boys and girls teams at Marie Reed Elementary School, the flagship school of our program. Check back each week for posts highlighting the students and coaches at Reed; detailing the successes and struggles of the season; and placing in the spotlight everything that goes on behind the scenes during a DC SCORES soccer season.

See photos from the season on Flickr.

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Written by Mir’ed Asfour
DC SCORES Intern

As I walked toward Marie Reed Elementary SchooI, I  felt a crisp, cool air accompany me. Upon approaching Marie Reed’s soccer field, I saw colleague Sean Hinkle, Associate Program Director for Quality, applying a fresh coat of white paint onto the grass, creating the lines of what was to be Reed’s playing surface for the upcoming season.

Although I was unsure of what to expect, one thing quickly became clear: fall is here.

Marie Reed Elementary School, originally Marie Reed Learning Center, in Adams Morgan was the first school to introduce a combination of soccer and poetry for students after school. Julie Kennedy, a former teacher at Marie Reed, invented this complementary combination of activities in 1994 when she began working with a group of 15 girls with little to do after school.

I took the brief 20-minute walk from the DC SCORES office to Marie Reed to see Ms. Kennedy’s program in action, as I observed both the girls and boys soccer teams practice and prepare for their first game day against Thomson Elementary School.

Upon entering Marie Reed, I was introduced to the coach of the girls soccer team, Ms. Leticia Lacomba, who kindly welcomed me to the school. Coach Lacomba was excited to learn that I would be visiting Reed every Wednesday, and she walked me down to Reed’s gym where the girls team conglomerated in the center circle.

Before introducing me to the girls, Lacomba distributed the soccer schedule to the girls for their parents. The girls skimmed over their schedule with excitement.

“When do we play Tubman?!” asked one girl.

“Are we playing Thomson?”  another girl wondered.

“Who do we play this week?” was asked by a third.

Lacomba explained to the girls that their first game would be played against Thomson. “Do you see how we are in bold?” she questioned her players, “That means we are the home team.”

Lacomba then introduced me to the girls. She divulged into the specifics of why I would be visiting them each week.

Introduction complete, I walked to the field where the boys team was gathered. I met their coach, Sean Lenaghan, and once more explained that I would be following their team over the course of the season. He instructed the children to take laps around the field to warm up. As the kids circled the field, they expressed their excitement for the season.

After the team took their lap and stretched, they split up into two teams to scrimmage each other, as practice before their game the next day. Coach Lenaghan picked each team and instructed the teams to choose a formation and get ready to play. Both teams selected a similar formation with two defenders, two midfielders, and two forwards.

The scrimmage kicked off, and less than a minute later the ball was kicked out of bounds. Coach Lenaghan took this opportunity to remind all his players of the technique for a proper throw-in.

“Both feet down, and the ball above your head” he told them. The scrimmage continued after a successful, rule-abiding throw-in.  

The ball bounced between both teams, possession trading constantly. On the sideline, not far from me, a young boy was yelling, “Control! Control!” I wondered if he was a teammate, friend, or sibling as I approached him.

“I don’t go to aftercare, and my little sister goes here so I come help out and set up goals,” said Tanvir R., a Reed alum who played on the team last year. “They’re looking good (this year). Last year we almost made it to the finals.”

He evaluated the team some more.

“I think they have a chance this year. They need to talk more. They’re already doing it some, saying ‘pass’ and ‘man on,’ but practice will make it better.”

Tanvir said there was a lot of continuity from last year’s team, with his former teammates Jubayed A., Isaac A., Jason V., Isa C., Jonathan G., Kavon R. and Ye N. all returning.

As I talked to Tanvir, one of the players walked off the field seemingly out of breath. Emerson N. had just been hit with a ball in the gut and was gasping for air. I told him to put his hands above his head and expand his lungs as he took in the oxygen he desperately needed. After regaining his breath, Emerson couldn’t stand to be on the sideline and quickly sprinted back onto the field, highlighting the overall excitement exuded by each player the day before their first game.

When the scrimmage concluded, the team split into two lines and began a drill in which one player practiced proper throw-in technique by throwing the ball to a teammate who used his chest to block it and gain control. After each throw, the player who was throwing became the player receiving, and the player receiving walked to the back of the line.

Five minutes later, Coach Lenaghan ended practice by calling all his players in. He talked about the upcoming game and  the importance of sportsmanship. He instructed each player that if an opposing player is on the ground, it’s important to help them up. Coach Lenaghan also complimented players on the completed practice, especially for using the correct throw-in technique.

Then all hands were placed in, and “ONE .. TWO .. THREE .. REED!” was exclaimed in unison, before the players walked inside to receive their uniforms.