This year we signed up James for AYSO soccer. Two years ago we signed him up to play through Kidsports and it ended up being a kind of ridiculous scam with 6th grade girls teaching the kids how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" with a soccer ball. Needless to say, it was a waste of time and money; although, I am pretty confident that James had a lot of fun.
So I convinced Kristine that we should sign him up through AYSO this year. Much to my surprise, the coach called and told us that they will have two practices a week and then a game every Saturday. We thought that having two practices a week was a little excessive, but after watching them play last Saturday, we realized that maybe two practices is not enough.
Saturday they started off their season playing in a jamboree. Each team played three games that consisted of two quarters each. It was hilarious to watch. James hadn't really played in a real soccer game before and his excitement seemed to get the best of him. The first quarter he just danced around the group that was following the ball, seemingly nervous to really get involved. The second quarter that he played, he finally started to kick it. However, he kept kicking it the wrong way. He would get so excited that he would just kick the ball, not caring which way he was supposed to be going.
While this was going on, Kristine and I were rather embarrassingly yelling things like, "That's the wrong way!" or "Get in there and kick the ball!" Poor James just kept looking over at us. I think we confused him more than helped him and he didn't understand what was going on--He was just having a whole lot of fun.
The team didn't win any of the three games. In fact, they didn't even score a single goal. However, they seemed to get better as the day progressed. His coach finally put James in as a fullback. At first we were a little nervous that he was too close to his own goal and if he kicks it the wrong way, it might be incredibly embarrassing if he scores for the other team. But James has a pretty good foot on him and was able to clear the ball away from the goal several times.
It was a lot of fun to watch. But Kristine and I both left the game feeling a little embarrassed that we couldn't help ourselves from being a crazy soccer mom and dad that just want our kid to perform well. So we scream and yell, instead of just being happy that our little 5 year old was perfectly content to just run around on the field with his friends.
4 comments:
Ha ha ha...I'm a screamer and yeller as well. You just can't hide the competitive nature inside. I'm glad James is liking soccer this year and I could totally picture him dancing around the outside of the rest of the team. :)
I love it! I bet James had a blast! How fun for him and you guys, it's all about the fun - just keep telling yourself that!
And you kids thought I got excited, now maybe you have a better understanding of this Parent thing.
Oh man, that is hilarious. I can totally picture it. I hope it lasts until I come and there can be some kind of game for me to see :)
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