So, this spring LM has been on his first soccer team! We signed him up through the local YMCA, and so far he is having fun. The "season" began the Saturday after BB was born, which we thought was good timing - something new and a distraction from the baby. There is a new coordinator of all of this at the Y this spring, and things came in rather late - and somehow LM was put on a team that is older than he is - he is one of the two or three 3 year olds on the team - the rest of the team is mostly 5 - a couple of 4's. It is co-ed, as you will see.
You can see how much taller the other kids are...
The fan base
The coach is great - he's a good communicator with the parents and he's not too uptight about what they are doing - they are learning the basic rules of soccer and having fun, and that is all. I love this about him. There is no reason it needs to be anything else at this point! He sent out an email asking what number the kids wanted on their jerseys - somehow this went awry for us - we were at the hospital still, having just had BB, and thought we requested #25, which is what LM said he wanted. When the shirts came in, not only was LM #1, there is ANOTHER #1. Oh well - best laid plans...
Coach Keith rallying the troops
BB and I haven't made it to a game yet - we plan to make it this weekend. But, S and LM have been going to every practice and game. S has taken all of these photos!
The main goal of this kind of soccer - especially at LM's age - is to get down the basics - kick, don't use your hands, keep the ball in bounds, and send it to the right goal. There is one girl on LM's team that consistently scores for the other team. All the time. Details.
They practice once a week - it's been rained out a couple of times. So, you know, they practice when they can. At these practices, there is another team of the same age that takes this time of theirs very seriously. S says the are doing drills the whole time, up and down the field, and seem to know what they are doing. At the same time, our team is working on listening skills - learning each other's names and such. This led S to term LM's team the "Bad News Bears" of soccer.
Couple this with the fact that sometimes LM is using the line markers as a hat, putting parts of the practice goal on his feet, and running into the bleachers instead of sitting where they are supposed to sit when they are out of the game, the verdict is certainly still out on whether this is the sport for him. For now, he plays hard when he's in and he's having a grand old time. And that's all that matters.
See you soon.
