Soccer Times Two

Ah, pictures of sunny Saturdays at soccer games . . . Makes me feel a little wistful for those days and that weather, but it will come again, and now we have Lissy, so next time it will be better. Not the point. The point is Josh and Noah. BOTH of them got to play this fall! Noah was so excited to finally get a chance, and Josh loved it as much as ever. And since we have friends on both teams, it was always a good get-away for me. Win, win. There were also chances to play at the park for Andrew. Win again.

From the moment we brought home his new cleats and shin guards, Noah was pumped. He put them on and ran around the house "being a really good soccer player." However, I was afraid that when the real time came, he would be timid. Not so. He got to be on the same team as his good friend Cooper, and while they could be silly during (even little) breaks in the action, they were totally focused on that ball while it was in play. At first Noah had a hard time with his general coordination, and didn't get much more than a few kicks in. He said he would score goals with "his secret weapon Cooper," who scored a lot. Then one day Cooper was gone, and for some reason Noah was able to really step it up. He scored 5 goals that day! While that was his best game of the season, he was always right in there after that, and while he still tripped, he also sometimes scored. It was a blast seeing him be excited. I wonder how long I'll be able to scoop and hug my little athletes as they run off the field . . . Don't know, but it's pretty great.

Josh moved up to the next league (kindergarten league, the big time), and it was fun to see that the herd mentality was starting to disappear. Josh had some games where he'd get in there and score quite a bit, but for most of the season he declared himself to be a defensive specialist. Nobody asked him to, but he told me, "Will is really fast, so he can score a lot of goals, so I'll play defense." So, he kind of hung back, and did a pretty good job of getting in the way of the ball. He was excited about the games, and counted each goal as a team goal, so hey, why not? Josh is not exactly quiet when he makes remarks during a game, which can sometimes get chuckles from spectators. Once he went into the game after sitting out for a few minutes and started playing really well. People started cheering for him and he yelled, "It must be all of those crackers that I just ate!" 

I had a hard time, as always, getting quality photos of the action, but here's a little taste . . .

Warming up for the big game - Noah is the one on the far left.

I told Noah I was going to take his picture and he did this action pose.

This shot is of the kids lining up for kickoff. I think it's hilarious that this is the  approach they take . Noah is the shirt-eater, and his friend Cooper is in the middle.

Josh is the one throwing in the ball.

Josh takes kick-off a little more seriously. His friend Ben is kicking, Josh is to the right.

Josh wanted me to take a picture of him being the soccer ball.

This is Noah, actually playing in the game. What his teammates are doing is hilarious to me.

There goes Noah!

Josh's team name was the Green Dragons, so for the last game (which was close to Halloween), they got green dragon face paint. Here's the team, roaring their intimidating roar. Josh emailed this picture to his teacher and said,

"I scared the other team. The other team ran away like crazy. They didn't play for the whole game. I am just kidding. We actually played. It was fun." I enjoyed his little sense of humor with that.

For the second year Gary is the assistant coach to Ben's dad, Spencer. The kid with his arm around Josh is Tanner, and next to him is Brooke. Brooke is in our ward, and Tanner is now in Josh's kindergarten class. This is the second year being on this team for most of these kids, and it's really cute to watch how they have become friends and learned so much about soccer together.