After a long season that began in early September, the Herndon All Star Tournament traditionally marks the end of the Fall season just before Thanksgiving. Given little time to assemble a cohesive team of All Stars, it's a tall order for the coaches to prepare their teams...and one thing they have to do which they never encounter during the regular season is get the players ready for the eventuality of "penalty kicks", the dreaded answer to a tie game at the end of regulation time. Whether Bryan Kirchner practiced them with his U10 Girls is unknown.  There's almost no doubt that Mac Squires and his fellow coaches did it with the U19's, pictured right, after their semi-final victory.

Congratulations to the U10 Girl, pictured below, for doing it "easily", only needing to score three PK goals to overcome a team from the Fairfax Police Youth Club (FPYC) to earn their championship trophy, after also going to a PK shootout in their semi-final victory.

Meanwhile, the U19 Girls did it the hard way just to get to the finals. In their semi-final match vs. Annandale (ABGC), after a 1-1 draw in regulation it took no fewer than twelve shots to score ten goals while the Annandale girls were stopped on three shots and fell by a score of 10-9. It happened that this reporter/photographer was there for the semi final game and got about 80 action photos which are posted on the BRYC Soccer Facebook page. Below are just a few photos from the 10-9 shootout, including the unusual calm which the two goalies exhibited in friendly conversation before it began, a near miss, the winning shot, and the winning save.

It happened again in the finals where the girls tied with Vienna 0-0 in regulation and again it came down to PK's to decide who would take home the Championship trophies. This time it took the BRYC ladies only four shots to defeat their HGHSL friends by a score of 4-2. CONGRATULATIONS to the U10's and the U19's for their exciting tournament wins, and to all the teams who participated for playing with great sportsmanship for which we are known and showing the BRYC colors so well.

Finally, our sincere apologies to the coaches, parents, and six teams who were scheduled to play on the Baron Cameron grass fields in Reston and were denied that chance when the Fairfax County Park Authority unexpectedly closed the park for the entire weekend due to wet field conditions...a fact that wasn't known until it was too late for the Herndon tournament organizers to do anything about it. We hope our efforts to salvage some kind of games on Sunday were of some compensation. We and the tournament are truly sorry for what transpired.

On a brisk (but DRY!) fall Saturday, the last of the season, BRYC Rec Soccer returned to full action, with the beleagured Mini Kickers moving their games from water-logged Lake Braddock to the beautiful environs of  Robinson Secondary School, playing on the upper turf, using cones and discs to deliniate six separate small fields. (Thanks to Deputy Commissioner Tim Eagle. League Directors Mike Roach, Devon Cramer, Kimya Cajchun, Camilla Hughart Roberts, Derek Bathrick and other helpers for quick work in getting Robinson ready for action after three missed Saturdays earlier this season due to inclement weather or unplayable field conditions. It wasn't about to happen again.) It's been one of those seasons, but this final fall Saturday, with many players bundled warmly in their sweats, hoodies, and knit caps, and with colorful falling leaves blowing everywhere, was nonetheless a perfect way to end the season.

The photos below, and many, many more on our Facebook page at "BRYC Soccer" are from the 11:00 AM games featuring the six teams listed in the headline, all of whom played their hearts out, looking like they can't wait until the spring season. Thanks for great parental support all season (how else does a 6 year-old get to the field?) from familes, friends, and especially our dedicated coaches. See you in the spring. DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER!

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Woodson HS's west turf was buzzing with action as eight of BRYC's ODSL squads hosted opponents from around Northern Virginia, including BRYC's U11 Boys "Victory", coached by Ibrahim Alothain and Joshua Spiro, who took on the Cougar Youth Club's (a recently formed club in Annandale) "Olympiacos" and BRYC's U11Girls "Lightning", coached by Andrew Lowden, who took on Arlington "Gold". Playing simultaneously on two "small sided" fields meant this reporter/photographer had to scramble between fields to take it all in, but was able to capture much of the action in two photo galleries now posted on BRYC's Facebook page, "BRYC Soccer".

At the end of the day, Victory was indeed victorious, by a final score of 3-0. In its game, Lightning struck for five goals while also holding the opponent scoreless. Congratulations to the coaches, the goalies, the stong defenders and the potent mids and forwards on these two great games.

On Saturday, October 13, the Facebook photographer paid a morning visit to Lake Braddock Lower field to take in some soccer action in the younger age groups. First off, the U5 Pirates (wearing blue, coached by John and Hannah Branning and Chris Breslin) took on the Ducks, coached by Chris Parry and Chris Simonson. In a high-spirited matchup, both teams scored at will...and no one cared about the score! In a later game the U6 Soccer Snakes, in blue, coached by Anastasia and Shawn Swearingen took on the Ninja Warriers, coached by Cara Bremer. The story was the same. Having a good time and maximizing ball touches was the name of the game.

In the final contest of the day for this reporter, the U7G Spirit (in blue, coached by Carlos Santizo and Omar Mendez), playing 4v4 for the first time, took on the Unicorns (coached by Rebecca Henry). It was a joy to watch. Playing small-sided games without goalies, and with the ball (and the players) in almost constant motion, it was also easy enough to get some fun action shots.

For a more complete photo set from these three contests, check out the BRYC Rec Soccer Facebook page, "BRYC Soccer". Feel free to share the album or individual photos with a courtesy credit to BRYC. 

There can't be anything more exciting than Photo Day at Canterbury Woods Elementary School, when well over 500 kids and their parents start lining up for their team and individual photos before 8:00 AM, and the chaotic but well-oiled machine continues until mid-afternoon when the final group of teams arrives. Starting in the school lobby where Mac Squires and the gang from CCI is there to sell BRYC sprit wear, to assembling the kids into their team groupings along the walls to the gymnasium, to watching the parents comb their children's hair, to watching the trained photographers from Olsen Studios coax each child into the perfect position, it's all a wonder to behold.  Here are just a few of the more "candid" photos from September 29, with a bunch more at our Facebook page, "BRYC Soccer", focusing on Coach Delila Belmadani's U10 Boys, the Golden Ninjas, Patty Kuong's U6 Boys, the Sharks, and Lightning, the U5 Mixed team coached by Mario Saravia. The kids are adorable!

Also posted on the Facbook page is a large series of photos from the matchup between coach (and League Director) Dalila Belmadani's Golden Ninjas and Coach Mario Savaria's older boys' team, the Silver Sharks, a great game at Pine Ridge Park that ended in a 2-2 draw. Coach Mario got a large dose of soccer this weekend with at least two games and two team photo sessions. Thanks, Mario!)

BRYC's perrenial champions DANGER!, coached by BRYC Commissioner James Sullivan  had all they could handle...and then some...on Sunday afternoon (September 17) at Wakefield Rec Center, falling to the VYS girls by a score of 0-2, but the result was in doubt until the very end when VYS scored its second goal in the final minute of play. Until that moment it was still anybody's game, with DANGER! fighting hard for the equalizer and coming close so many times. The season is still young...with DANGER! having played only two games while the VYS girls were already in their fourth game of the season. (In their first game they tied the BRYC team coached by Doug Alcorn and Mac Squires.)

Thanks to all the parents and siblings who showed up to cheer the girls on and provide this writer some back-story and context for the game. Well over 100 photos are posted on the "BRYC Soccer" Facebook page, for your enjoyment. Here are just a few of them.

The weekend of Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September 9 saw the return to action for most BRYC Rec Soccer teams. A little dampness in the air wasn't going to bother anyone. The kids were ready to go and their parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, were equally excited about the return to the pitch.

Former Webmaster and All Star Tournament Coordinator for many years, Ralph Schuetz, (pictured, 2nd from left, at a DC United game, along with long time Director or Referees John Davis, League Commissioner James Sullivan, and Director of Training and U4 League Director Joan Smith Sullivan), who has missed his long-time friends and fellow volunteers on the EXCOM for the past five years or so, has returned to BRYC to fill the long-vacant role of Social Media Coordinator and Web Feature Writer, not to speak of photographer. He joins Tim Eagle (Deputy Commissioner of the Mini-Kickers Division), Elizabeth Giuliani (Budget Coordinator and member of the BRYC Board), the aforementioned Joan Smith Sullivan, and newcomer-Webmaster Latasha Beckman, among others, in working to keep up both the BRYC Rec Soccer web page web page and its Facebook page as well. 

His first efforts were at U8 Girls and U8 Boys games at Winterset Varsity Park on opening day. Major photo galleries are now posted on the BRYC Soccer Facebook Page, "BRYC Soccer". You're invited to "follow" BRYC for what we hope will be weekly photo galleries, supplementing feature stories on this web page, with articles and photos of general interest. We'll try to cover all the action, from our youngest to our most experienced players, from the Rec and ODSL programs, not to speak of special events including Coaches Games, Uniform Night, Photo Day, pre-season Coaches' Meetings, occasional DC United and Washington Spirit games, and all the activites that make BRYC one of the most respectedand top rated clubs in the area.

This week's featured web photos (below) are of some very happy kids wearing BRYC's new uniforms. Not required to be worn until the Spring 2019 season, nonetheless there are a number of players who have already pruchased them and were excited to show them off on opening day,. Annabelle from the Soccer Queens and Riker and Zayd from the Dragon Warriers looked mighty good. (The boys' coaches, Eric and Edgar, were coaching the next game after Schuetz had already taken well over 200 photos, and didn't need any more, but are also pictured below.)

If you have any comments or ideas for web features we'd love to hear from you. Click on the "Contact" link to the navigation menu on the left and scoll down. And don't forget to check out the "new and improved" Facebook page, "BRYC Soccer", even if you're not a U8 parent. What a nice group of kids, parents and grandparents they were. Schuetz is glad to be back!