Last game of the season...

Taking a Corner Kick

Scoring a Goal

The Lions

Little Man had his last soccer game of the season this weekend. In case you didn't know, I love sports and I L-O-V-E competition...I grew up playing a slew of sports and some of my fondest memories are of softball games, swim meets, volleyball playoffs, and basketball workouts. I am so glad that Little Man has entered into the world of 'organized team sports' this year. Even if a child is not athletically inclined, I think there are so many great life lessons that can been learned through team sports!

We noticed before that Little Man does not have a problem picking up a sport. I mean, we have already had to apologize to the neighbor for a golf ball flying over the fence and hitting their windshield. He had his all time high season in the first soccer game, 6 goals. Yes it's great that he learned the fundamentals of soccer (goal kicks, no hands, corner kicks, etc)... yes it's great that he had fun...But the best things that came from soccer were the parallels we were able to draw to life. Sooo many good conversations were opened up due to soccer. The first one I remember, is the bragging conversation. He has come such a long way in that department! He now is recognizing when he is bragging, and really tries to control it.

Another conversation I remember, is encouraging your teammates (basically the age old 'there is no 'I' in Team)! And to sit on the side lines and hear him yell for each of his teammates this last game made me so proud!

And another, after a close game (even though technically we don't keep an official score, the kids and parents keep score in there heads...you can't help but do it! It's sports, come on people!) when the time ran out, Little Man burst into tears, upset at the fact that they had lost and he doesn't like to loose. This opened up a huge box of opportunity for great conversation. We talked about how we don't always 'win' in life. Sometimes we loose and we are disappointed. We still tell the other 'players' good job, and if we played our best then we have nothing to be ashamed of. And for the leagues that don't believe in 'winning or loosing', and who 'just want to play for fun', that's not real life, and I really think it's teaching children a false sense of reality...Just my opinion and thought, forgive me if I offended anyone.

Oh I could go on and on....you have to practice at everything in life if you want to get better at it.

And on and on....but I will stop there since I have to be getting packed and the laundry is calling!

So if you couldn't already tell, we had a very positive experience and plan on playing again in the spring. We were very fortunate to have had an incredible team and coach. Our coach is a dad of 4 and was coaching 5 teams at the time, but he somehow found time for an 'Awards Ceremony' for our little team, because he thought it was important to present each child with their metal and say something positive about each child and their season. A little man is very proud of his metal, as he should be!