With Collin in kindergarten, we finally entered the world of organized sports. We selfishly held onto our Saturdays as long as possible, but we wanted Collin to experience the fun and friendships that often come with sports. There are two main options where we live - a competitive, multiple weeknight practice and game league or a low-key church league. Of course we went with the church league and asked to be on a team with other kids from his elementary school.
And we ended up on an amazing team - with wonderful coaches, sweet parents with siblings who love Maya and play with her during practice, and all but two of the kids are in kinder with Collin at our school. The team also has 8 girls and 3 boys, so they are named the Rainbow Tiger Sharks. Cas refuses to cheer for them by their name, but does yell for the Tiger Sharks.
Our first game happened to fall on the weekend my brother was in town for a wedding, so he was able to join us for Collin's first game - a 45 minute drive to make the 9am game - that is some uncle dedication! The game was pretty much exactly as I expected. Collin plays soccer like I did - hangs back and waits for the perfect kick rather than aggressively being in the mix and pursuing the ball. We tried to encourage him to kick the ball as many times as he possibly can.
He prefers the "boomer" position (defender in front of the goal) over the "scorer." We have one boy on the team that does dive kicks every time he comes in contact with the ball. We had kids kicking it the wrong way. Every time we'd throw the ball in, the rest of our team would stand there and watch as the other team ran for the ball. And surprisingly, we won!
Most of the kids - including Collin - want to be goalie. Maybe because it's 90-degrees at 9am and that's the one spot where they got a rest. Our goalie yawning away - look alive, Collin!
After he had the penny jersey over his head impairing his vision, we sent Uncle Alex to private coach. Basically the message was, let's not look like a moron, watch the field.
Oh, and stand in front of the goal. There's no good stopping the ball if the goalie is
inside the goal!
After the game we asked Collin how he liked it (great) and how he thought he did. He initially answered that he was the best player on the team. Then he reconsidered after remembering how they gave the game trophy to another girl (team trophies tend to be instilling confidence) and said he was second best. Oh, the confidence of my five-year-old. He's definitely in the bottom 50% of skill level, but we're delighted that he's enjoying himself and learning a new sport.
And his sister couldn't be prouder, cheering away for him from the sidelines!
After the game, we came back to cool off in the pool. Uncle Alex, with the thicker blood from his Midwest winters, was ready to swim, but my kids hung out by the heated bubblers. Maya, playing with Uncle Alex -
Giggling and splashing away -
Collin and Uncle Alex hanging out on the trampoline -
Long jump contest -
I put down the camera to play "dead man" where the person who is "it" finds the others on the trampoline with their eyes closed. And Alex and I marveled at how we played this growing up but our trampoline was net-less! We cracked up at how ridiculous the "it" person looked blindly groping around the trampoline, and Collin was happy to have someone other than Maya on the trampoline with him, as her only game is "Ring Around the Rosie."
On Sunday, after a bbq lunch and some board games, we told Uncle Alex good-bye. We had such a great weekend with him and can't wait to see him and his beautiful bride at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Big hugs for our uncle after tumbling and wrestling, block building, soccer coaching, playing and swimming together -
This was the visit where Maya forgot about being a mama's girl and started having a blast with my brother! We were thankful that his old roommate got married in Houston and gave us this time with him!
No comments:
Post a Comment