Spring Soccer

Trenton completed his first season of soccer playing. We had our ups and downs - Steve loved the comment: "I just wish I were playing basketball instead!" After a few practices and he got the hang of things really started enjoying it. He loved to play defense and when he saw the ball heading towards his goal he raced to be the first to defend the goal. They played lots of games with the kiddos and Trenton's favorite was "Cookie Monster, are you Hungry?"

He was always at the offenders side, running down the field two steps in front of him at a perfect spot to kick the ball away, but never did. I tried to teach him to kick the ball away from players heading towards his goal, but his comment was, "That is totally cheating, Mom. Are you kidding me? Now you want me to be a cheater?!" So I guess we have a few things to work on.

It was our first and our LAST outdoor spring soccer. I can't decide which practice was my favorite - the two snowstorms, the hailstorm, the 3 windstorms, or the two that got cancelled due to weather. We'll be searching for summer, fall and indoor programs from here on out.

Trenton made some good buddies and loved his Coach Kara.

But if anyone caught the soccer bug it was our little Blake. Blake is certainly obsessed with any type of ball, and the soccer ball is no exception. He wanted to play with the big kids so bad, and having to kick the ball on the sidelines was rough for my little guy. He kept saying, "I do socca pac-tice. I pay soccer-ba." Practice after practice he'd make the saddest little frown when I had to explain the game was for the big kids, and try to be content kicking the ball on the sidelines. You can imagine his elation when we found the tiniest pair of soccer cleats (see above) for 50 cents at a garage sale. The day we bought them, he put them on and wore them all day.

At the last practice the siblings were invited to play with the kids. Blake thought he had found heaven. He listened so carefully to the coaches and did exactly what they said. You can see in the above picture how seriously he took lining up with the big kids, getting ready to race to the goal (with his little hands by his sides - aww!).
When they blew the whistle, as you can see Blake smoked the 6 year-olds and was not only the first to dribble to the goal, but made a perfect shot. He turned around and triumphantly shouted, "Mama - I pay socca!" Hmmm...we'll see where that one goes :).