Soccer

John recently began his first season of organized sports. We enrolled John in a six-week program of soccer for pre-K-aged children through our local YMCA (thinking of you, uncles Lyn and John whenever I see the Y logo!). Because Amelia has been involved in ballet at a privately-owned studio since she was four we never navigated the very popular world of Y sports that exists in our community. Scott and I thought that John's high energy level would be a good fit for team sports so we decided to introduce him to the most popular sports in our area for young boys, soccer (now, starting in February) and T-ball (coming later this spring if he responds well to soccer).

I told John that we signed him up for soccer about a week before the first meeting, which was about the time when we needed to shop for supplies (the children were supposed to have shin guards and a soccer ball as equipment for the sessions). I took Amelia and John with me one Saturday to a local sports store to get John's equipment. I was pleasantly surprised that John was VERY excited about shopping for his soccer gear, which is interesting given that (a) he has never really observed a real soccer match so I don't really know if he even understood what we signed him up for, and (b) his general distaste for shopping in all cases. But once we got to the store and I explained that we were looking for items for his soccer team, John was all over it. John was cooperative and excited about it all, to the point where he wanted to try on his gear immediately when we got home and then refused to take it off that evening for bed.

Below is a shot of John practicing in our backyard on the day we purchased the soccer supplies. Doesn't he look handsome in the soccer "uniform" of shin guards and socks with the black athletic shorts?

And below ia shot from our first day of "practice". John's team meets with another team every Saturday morning for 45 minutes. The first 30 minutes are skills drills led by one coach for both teams where the parents are involved in helping their children learn the tools needed for soccer. I went with John this past Saturday where we worked on passing the ball with our feet, learned never to use our hands, and learned how to stop the ball with our feet.

After the skills drills there was 15 minutes devoted to scrimmage between the two teams. Basically the coach dropped the ball in the middle of the field and explained that one team was to kick towards then goal on one end of the field and then the other team was to take their turn and try to get the ball towards the goal on the other end. The kids tried hard, but they were mostly confused about which goal was theirs and what the boundaries of the field were.

I have heard friends of mine referring to 3 and 4 year-old soccer as "watching a bunch of cattle trying to herd on a field", and this was very true in general for what I observed last Saturday. It was completely hilarious and worth the price of enrollment just for watching this 15 minutes of one weeks' lesson. I can't wait until this week for more laughs!

However, not to brag too much (well, I am bragging some!), John hung in there and was a fierce competitor for his team. While John did not understand all elements of the scrimmage (he seemed to be oblivious to the boundaries of the field in particular, as evidenced by the fact that he was kicking the ball as hard as he could in whatever direction he was running in), he was tough and aggressive and completely wanted to get the ball to the other end of the field. I was so proud! Especially given that several children were crying at this point, pleading to go home, etc., while John stuck in there running until he was red in the face because he was going to be (as he put it) "the fastest, bestest soccer player on my team!". In fact, John even scored a goal. Hurray! He was fast and not at all scared to wrestle the ball away from another child, which is good.

After the cattle-running exercise, I mean the scrimmage, the children all got a snack and got to relax a bit. I wanted John to pose for a cute "first day of soccer" photo. And even though he was dead tired, did John cooperate? No, of course not! John historically has not cooperated for my photos and there was no exception this past Saturday. You can imagine me on the field, "John, please smile for mommy and let's take a cool soccer picture!" Me: "Please, John! No treats after lunch if you can't smile like a handsome boy!" Then I got the following (complete joker face).

After another dozen potos and not an honest smile in the bunch, I got this:

Gotta love it (not really). At least I have five more matches to work the camera angle.

After soccer, and after picking Amelia up from ballet, and after a nice lunch out with grandma and grandpop, we all headed for the park. This was the first day in MONTHS when we have had decent enough weather to spend time outdoors and I wanted to take advantage of it. The kids had a good time and the adults enjoyed the fresh air and time to talk while the children entertained themselves on the playground. Below are Amelia and John on the rocking bumble bee. How can this kid have so much energy STILL?

And here is my sweet Amelia posing in the lion's mouth at the playground. It struck me this past Saturday that at this playground in particular, Amelia might be getting towards the upper end of the age range where slides and swings, etc. are still fun. Even though Amelia looked like she was having fun, the fact that the mean age of the children on the playground was about 4 years old made me realize just how old and grown-up these kids are getting. Sigh.

Overall this was a fun and wonderful weekend. So glad that grandma and grandpop could be with us.