Dragons Abroad- boys sports

Our Spiderdragons, Tobi and Hansi, play for TSV Murnau Dragons. We got lucky and coach Wolfgang let Tobi and Hansi play, even though he had full squad. Wolfgang plays our boys on 2 of his teams, a U10 and U11 team. TSV Murnau is a developmental team, with hopes of sending many of its kids to the Bayern Munich academy. In turn, Bayern Munich scouts TSV for talent. Early on Wolfgang told me the practice schedule and said they don't practice in bad weather. I'm still not sure what constitutes "bad weather". I thought when I dropped the boys off for practice in a raging thunder storm, that may have been "bad weather". I offered my cell phone number in the event they would want us to pick kids up early. The coach told me that the only thing that lightening bothers is uptight mothers. So far no training or games have been canceled on account of weather; they play through snow storms, lightening storms, downpours or below zero temps. The kids seems to have a blast playing in downpours.

The training is a bit different here. One thing the kids do after every game is have a penalty kick shoot out, all for fun. They also had a soccer camp which included target shooting and a slack line.

I find soccer particularly friendly. From a parents perspective, everybody greets everybody, wether you are on the same team or not. Coaches act mellow as well. When the ref makes a bad call, people do not react. In fact, parents don't go ballistic on the side line at all; even I pipe down.

All the uniforms belong to the club and they have been using the current uniforms for the past 6 years. Only the mother who washes the uniforms, worries about them. Every field has nice bathrooms, a changing room for the home and guest team. Someone brings the suitcase with all the fresh, clean uniforms, the boys change and then file onto the field. Meanwhile there is usually a lovely little cafe offering beer, cake and coffee. At the end of the game, another mother gets the uniforms to wash. Unlike a gasoline (about $8/ gal), soccer is very affordable here; we did a weekend soccer camp for €10/kid.

Sports have been a great way for the boys to make friends. In Germany, if a kid doesn't play soccer, then they usually play handball (a cross between soccer and basketball). Kids play both at school. The boys participated in a wonderful, large handball tournament. Additionally, Tobi skied at Garmisch with a local ski club and Hansi joined a tennis team.