This is the first year we've signed Evan up for team sports. Of course we started with soccer! He just turned 4 years old five days after the cut off for the U5 (under 5) league, and while the football club he is playing with does have a U4 league too, I figured he should be the youngest on the team rather than the oldest. My rationale for this was because I think he learns from watching other kids best (as we've seen in his swimming lessons and how he learned to ride a bike). Plus, as it turned out, three of the kids on his team are in his pre-k class, so that was further reinforcement of my decision.
Practices got assigned to take place on Wednesdays from 5-5:45pm at the same fields where his games take place. Unfortunately, this is on the other side of town, and in addition to having to take off from work early to go pick him up, we have to then drive back to the south side of town in 5 o'clock traffic. Needless to say, we don't always make it there on time, but we aren't the only ones!
Evan lined up for drills at his very first soccer practice.
Evan's team had several weeks of practice before their first game, in part due to the fact that the first week of games they had a bye week. It worked out well to give us extra time to get his official jersey's for the team. Evan's games are on Saturdays, and most all have been mid-day, even right over the lunch hour from noon-1pm! Those are the worst, in my opinion, because Evan's extra hungry and just wants to eat snacks instead of play. That's when his first game was and boy was it a challenge to encourage him to keep playing! The games are 20 minute halves, which also seemed really long that first game in particular! I usually time the games for our team and I remember that first game the coach looked at me to see if it was nearly halftime and it was only 10 minutes in! Speaking of that, the games are very informal, such that we don't keep score, the coaches are the referees, and so it's just meant to teach the kids to play and have fun. Here are a few photos from Evan's first ever soccer game (Sept 19):
The whole team after their first game
The tunnel walk for the players after the game, which is a tradition in every game in this league
The next week was team picture day and a double header! I don't know why they would give 4-year-olds double headers given how tired they already get in the 20-minute halves, but alas, this is what landed on our team's schedule. What made it worse was that 2 of the 7 players on the team were out of town and so we had to make due with only 5 players. Since the games play 3 on 3, that meant that we couldn't substitute out all 3 players from the field at once! We ended up asking the opposing coaches for both games if we could just do 15-minute halves. Both opposing coaches agreed so that was at least a help to keep our kids from being too tired!
Team photo taken by me
His official individual and team photos
Once again in this set of games, Evan really had to be encouraged to go out and play. He did alright when he was given the ball to kick it in and such, but was was hanging out on the periphery of the group of kids going for the ball. After talking to him about these games I think it clicked for me what he wasn't enjoying. He wasn't as aggressive at getting the ball as some of the other kids and he didn't have the dribbling skills some of the others had too. He was getting frustrated that he didn't get the ball very much. Thinking back to all the times we've played soccer with him at home, he never had real competition for the ball and I guess he wasn't used to it. There are a few kids on his team who have great ball control already and can get into the huddle, get the ball, and take it down the field for a goal. Evan told us he was kind of sad because he didn't get to score any goals. It was hard to see him so discouraged, but we've been trying to work with him (mentally in particular) to keep his spirits up and keep him motivated. A few pictures during from the games:
Then we had another bye week, and the week after that the game got rescheduled to a time we couldn't make it (conflict with the pumpkin patch birthday party). That was the only game to be rescheduled after the "final" schedule came out, and of course it was the one day where we'd planned around our game time to be able to make it to the other party (my friend even scheduled the party at a time so we could come!). So when the that game time changed, we chose the party instead. Actually, we let Evan weigh in on the decision too, but since he hadn't been enjoying his soccer games as much as he loves the pumpkin patch, there was little chance he'd miss out on pumpkin patch party time for the soccer game.
Last week's game we had a bit of a turn around. Since we'd been talking to him about not giving up and to keep going for the ball, we started to see him trying more. And in last week's game, he got the ball at one point and kicked it right into the goal nearest him! It made him so happy! He went around to everyone giving high fives afterward. However, it was the wrong goal. I didn't want to rain on his parade. He was so proud of himself, and really in this league, what does it matter? However, one of the other kids had told him. So after we got home and John and I were telling him how happy we were that he scored a goal he told us "yeah, but it was the wrong one". I was shocked he knew, so I asked him how he knew that and he told me who told him (a kid on his team). Bummer. He took it fairly well though, and then going into this latest game (Oct 24) he really did have a lot more hustle about him and he was getting his legs into the crowd of kids around the ball to try to get the ball more. And the best thing was that he did get it a few times! And one of the times he got it he was able to score a real goal with it! :) Evan's first goal!! We didn't get a photo or video of it, but it will be a memory kept in our minds for sure!
Pre-game silly photos
Kicking it off to his teammates
Going in for the high fives after the game with his team (just before the tunnel walk)
I'll admit, soccer hasn't been going quite as I had envisioned. I thought for sure that Evan would be a natural and that he'd love it. But, he is going to have to practice and get better at it and keep trying to do well in it. So at this point I've just given him two main rules to follow when he plays: 1) Try really hard, and 2) Have fun. When I ask him to recite the most important things about playing soccer he'll say "Try really hard and have a great time." I love his interpretation and he seems to be taking it to heart. We have two more games left in this season and so we'll see how things go. Then we'll take a break until next fall and try it again. :)
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