So, soccer is a foreign world to me. I had friends who played soccer growing up but soccer season was the same time as softball season, and lets be honest, there is a lot of running involved in soccer. I'd rather sprint to first or trot around the bases ( :) no laughing!) than run up and down the soccer field. Also, the fact that the time on the scoreboard doesn't match up to the actual time that the refs (umpires? officials?) keep throws me for a loop.
Anyhow...Kemper requested to play soccer this year. No prompting on our part (in fact, in years past, we've never brought it up because we're not really soccer people), just decided one day that he wanted to give soccer a try. Not ones to dissuade him from being active and trying out different sports, we decided to sign him up on post even though we were told there was a better league out in town. Reasoning behind that decision was that since he had never played before, we didn't need a super competitive league where all of the kids were already all stars.
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| Team huddle before game 1. Go Grass Kickers! |
So, aside from the fact that I somewhat balked at the commitment this was turning out to be (hour long practices, 2 nights a week and games on Saturdays) for 5-year olds, we showed up for the first (actually second thanks to a military ball) practice with one excited little boy. In true "parents of the year" fashion, he was the only kid without his own ball. Apparently you supply your own ball for soccer on post. Thankfully the coach had a few extras he was able to borrow for that practice and things got back to smooth sailing fairly quickly. He seemed to love it and based on the drills the coach had them doing, he looked as if he was holding his own and that all of the kids were about on par with one another (with the exception of 2).
Practice number 2 is where we began to see the light. Kemper is a pretty meek and mild kiddo...and when it came time to scrimmage, just picture the soccer ball as a flame and the kids as moths. It was a giant swarm of kids with legs kicking every which way. Kemper hung about 4 steps behind the giant pack of kids. Does this phase him? No, not really. He still seems to enjoy it and have fun but most of our attempts to get him to jump in there have failed. He seems to understand the concept that if he gets open, theoretically, someone should pass him the ball. But nobody ever does despite his yelling and jumping up and down. It's kind of a free for all.
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| Getting ready to start the first game. Kemper is #14 |
So, game 1 rolls around and luckily, James and I have smartened up about proper soccer sideline viewing etiquette. We show up with our chairs (including an adorable kid sized chair for Hudson...which he sat in for approximately 5 seconds before making his first attempt to join the team on the field) and sat them as close to the sidelines as possible. We did not, however, show up with an umbrella or pop up tent like 75% of the other parents did. Silly us, we just put sunscreen on and figured we would be out there for an hour, at most. The game starts and, much to our surprise, Kemper is starting! Since this is 5-year old soccer, there is no score keeping and no official refs (umps? officials?) but the coaches stay on the field and guide the players through the game when needed. From the moment the first whistle blew, I began to sense that we were in the minority in thinking that this was a "learning" league.
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| Kemper's cheering section! |
Some of these parents are BRUTAL. My mouth may or may not have hit the ground a few times at the way some parents were behaving. I can be just as competitive as the next guy but, for the life of me, I just can't get my hackles up when it comes to 5-year old soccer. If the kids are having fun, GREAT! Nobody getting hurt, GREAT!! Learning a new sport, AWESOME!
We have two kids on our team who are very good! Their parents are VERY different. Child A, his parents are respectful of the other parents, cheer the team on and encourage their son to let his teammates have a chance (no lie, he scored probably 11 times and broke away down the field many more times throughout that first game). Child B's parents (well, dad) are very loud, have no problem criticizing their son (or any other player on the team) very loudly, and encouraging their son to only pass the ball to Child A. Another parent, from the other team, ran up and down the sidelines screaming directions at her child the entire game.
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| Kemper on the bench...where he seemed to prefer to stay after the game started. |
It became glaringly obvious that Kemper, while he enjoys soccer, is not the best soccer player on the team. Refer back to the meek and mild section. Whenever he was in the game, he kept up with the pack of kids but stayed 2-3 steps behind them. He asked to substitute out a few times (and this would be where I get a bit frustrated) and seemed to enjoy his time on the bench. He went through an entire Nalgene bottle of water and had to come have us refill his bottle mid-way through the game. Game 2 and 3 went about the same, with him asking to sub out but he did get excited to play goalie for a bit in game 2 (albeit the coach hadn't really covered what the goalie can and cannot do so he didn't know he could use his hands...oops)!
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| Pretty excited for the post-game snacks! |
We keep talking up and encouraging him to get into the mix of the kids and to go after the ball. He's getting a little better as we get further into the season but is still content to just follow along behind. He did seem to enjoy the mid-game goalie lesson that James gave him during the last game.
The previous 2 pictures are of Kemper actually getting into the action during game 3. His buddy was playing goalie and after a save, he saw that Kemper was open and kicked it to him. He did great until the pack of kids caught up to him and then he shied off, as usual. Either way, we were super proud of him and made sure to tell him following the game and praise him for how well he did when he had the ball.
When it comes down to it, I just want him to have fun and enjoy his time on the soccer field. If he finishes this season and decides he doesn't want to play next year, that is perfectly fine with me and I will be thankful that he tried it in the first place. After each game and practice, my first question is always to ask him if he had fun. He has plenty of time left in his life to worry about being competitive and winning.
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