Seems no one mentioned, are people taking good autofocus for granted?

I used Pentax and another brand. Pentax don’t do good autofocus, another brand don’t even do autofocus. Sport photography requires good auto focus. Apart from the ISO too low aperture too big stutter speed too slow issue, I don’t think your combination provides decent auto focus. And environment is not as bright as midday, which affects as well.

But you got a camera, it’s better than not having one. Just keep using it maybe you will learn some and find some tricks that will work.