Soccer Star!

This past September we signed Gavin up for (dot...dot..dot...)... SOCCER!  He absolutely loved it, and after the first practice we headed over to Walmart to get him his own Gavin sized soccer ball.

Okay, so lets be honest.  Yes Gavin did absolutely love it, but it was a close call between the two of us.  It's just too cute watching little kids, in over-sized soccer shirts, chasing/kicking/tripping over balls, or suddenly just deciding they're done for the day and heading over to play in the sand at the volleyball court instead.

There were no actual games, just learning basics and having fun, as parents participated by practicing throw-ins, passing, shooting, and dribbling with their kids.  I loved watching all the kiddos run around the "field" with their coaches at the beginning of practice and "stretching" (as they all touched their toes with ease wondering how this had anything to do with playing soccer).

At the end of each practice they'd play some sort of little game, like follow the leader - running after their coach copying as he'd run backwards, or jump, or skip; or playing one on one keep away with their parent.  On the last day they actually set up small three on three games, and I soon realized why we never played actual games against other teams.  I think it was a little traumatizing for some of the kids, but definitely entertaining for the adults.

Up to this point each kid had always had their own ball.  Now we were telling them, "there's six of you, and one ball (first problem).  Now you three try and get the ball in this goal, and you other three try and get the ball in that goal (It was too much to try and explain when throw ins would come into play).  In the end it was a cluster of six kids chasing after one ball, all trying to be the one to get the ball into which ever goal happened to be the closest (often using hands if necessary).

With six kids all going after the same ball, accidental trips and pushes were inevitable, often with the first kid bringing at least two or three others down with him, followed by tears, hugs and kisses from parents and a new vengeance to be the one to get the ball.  We try so hard to teach our children to share with others, so it made sense when one poor girl kept walking over to her dad crying every time she had the ball and someone wasn't nice and took it way from her.  Or when, instead of cheering when someone scored a goal, all the other's would be sad that it wasn't them and they wanted to be the one to have a turn.  

In the end everyone survived the short game and were still friends.  Gavin loved putting his hand in with all his soccer buddies at the end of each practice and cheering, "SOCCER!"

Gavin loved it, and we sure do love our little Soccer Star!