Simon's First Soccer Practice

Our little middle dude had his first soccer practice/game this morning. I'm not sure what to call it really since it's clinic and this particular clinic was absolute mayhem. Small field and 140 four-year-olds spread out among something like 12 teams. It was kind of insane.

Simon took it SO seriously though. Man alive... if he actually learns some technique and can remember which direction to kick the ball, he will be a force to be reckoned with. He is pretty competitive, we are finding! I guess that's a good place to channel his angry streak... into competitiveness.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is this little girl on his team (who is the coach's daughter). I honestly don't know what these parents were thinking signing this child up for a team sport. She was terrified of the whole situation. Clearly it was way too overwhelming for her and she didn't understand or want to understand what was going on. She just kept bursting into tears and screaming for daddy in the middle of the field, which was pretty distracting for a bunch of already distracted four-year-olds. She especially freaked out when another kid would come by and steal the ball or if she had to kick it to another kid who was supposed to "block the goal" or whatever. Simon was on the receiving end of this a few times. I do not think it helped reinforce our "girls are cool." mantra we've been working so hard to drill into him lately. NOT good.

Anyway, he had a great time, chaotic though it was and can't wait to go back next week. He is especially thrilled with his blue jersey with the number 9 on it. :)

We are just glad he didn't get put on the pink team. He dislikes the color pink more than he dislikes girls, I think. Yes, they actually made one of the team jersey colors pink. Interesting, I thought, given that the soccer clinic is dominated by little boys. Not that little boys can't wear pink but... really? I'm wondering how the kids took it.... they were too far away to hear. LOL.

Soccer...

So, as it turns out... Ben? LOVES soccer. A LOT. My camera, thankfuly, did not eat yesterday's pictures, although I was sitting further away for most of them, so they aren't as good as the ones that got eaten. :( Nevertheless, here the are:

Warmups:


Dribbling:


Waiting his turn:


Hey, guys!


Drink break with daddy...


Ben and Hailey... Hailey pretty much runs circles around the entire team. She's the next Mia Hamm.


Trying to steal the ball from Brady


Goal!


I finally wised up and moved closer...


So many things to ponder...


Getting ready to kick...

Ben's First Soccer Practice...

This story will be told in invisible pictures, since it seems my memory card somehow ate the 50 or so pictures I took. Really weird, I tell ya.

The first picture is of Ben with his new red Towson Rec soccer shirt on. He chose the number five. He also tucked it in because he felt like it was a little too big. (not really, but whatever) He LOVES the shirt.

Pictures 2-15 are of Ben running around with the ball. You'll notice in these pictures that Ben isn't wearing shin guards. We are the dumb parents who didn't realize we needed to provide such a thing. Ben wanted to know where his "armour" was. Oops. Tom and Ben are out at Dicks as I type this. They are purchasing shin guards.

16 and 17 are of Simon, standing on the sidelines with his shiny yellow soccer ball he brought, staring longingly at the big kids while they played. We had to coax him off the field multiple times, although he was pretty entertained by some extra soccer goals that were on the field. He asked us where his red shirt was.

18-25 - These are photos of the kids doing warm ups. It was very entertaining to watch 4-5 year olds do jumping jacks.

25-40 - These are photos of the kids doing drills. HIIIILARIOUS. They had to toss the ball into the air backwards and then turn around, find it, dribble and then kick it in the goal. Use your imagiaition and I'm sure you'll giggle too. Turns out that throwing the ball into the air backwards is a skill that 4-5-year-olds really kinda don't have. They also had to do side kicks and backwards kicks. This went a little better.

40-45 - The "two on two" games. In these photos, you will see my child mostly running around with his mouth open. He was screaming things like, "We might get muddy, but we won't care!" and "This team is too good for me! I can't beat them!" "Hey everyone, are we gonna work together?!" and "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

45-50 - "four on four" games. This was where my child got the entire team to yell "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" as loudly as they could while chasing after the ball. Ben scored a goal somewhere in here. My favorite picture from this bunch though was of the coach asking each team (after several attemps at scoring on the wrong goal) which direction they were supposed to be taking the ball... the photo is of all four kids pointing at the goal.

All in all, it was an entertaining hour. I wish I had the pictures to show for it, because really, some of them were very funny. I guess I'll try again next week! I really have NO idea what happened with the card. I KNOW the card was in and the pics were there because I scrolled through them while I stood on the field and erased blurry/bad ones. Other pics from other things were there, so I know I didn't erase the card. (sigh)

I somehow don't think Ben has a future playing soccer. But at least it's fun to watch. ;)