Soccer Mom
For as long as I can remember, long before the husband and I were even anywhere close to actually getting married and having kids, I have sworn up and down that my child was not going to play soccer. Baseball, sure. But soccer, no.
So you can imagine my surprise that it took a mere 3 years after his birth for Three to change that.
The writing was on the wall last year when during the World Cup, he would insist on kicking his ‘soccer’ ball around the living room anytime we watched a game. We happened to be at Yankee Stadium this past summer during the Women’s World Cup and the Team USA/Brazil game. In between innings they showed the game tying goal on the scoreboard. Three yelled SOCCCCCCEEERRRRRRRRRRR! as soon as the footage rolled.
A friend of mine runs one of the semi-local town recreaction departments in the area. It also happens to be one of the few around here that starts soccer at 3. Three won’t be eligible to play in our town until he is 6 as he misses the cut off for the 5 year old team by 9 days. When Three heard talk of being able to play soccer he was totally excited at the prospect. My husband, whose own sports ambitions were foiled at least partially by his parents total lack of interest in sports, is determined that if Three wants to play, he will play.
So the last 6 weeks found me driving half an hour south to a 9 AM Saturday soccer practice for three year olds.
And for the most part, I loved every minute of it.
I cannot say enough good things about the coach they had. He struck a really good tone with the kids mixing in the fundamentals of the game, and still recognizing the kids are three. The amount of structure that he was able to get the kids to follow was nothing short of amazing. There was prodding to get the kids to do drills and such, but never forcing. Of course there were times when the kids were just acting their age and such, but over all the whole hour of practice was just fun and he did a great job of keeping 20+ three year olds engaged. And the teenage coaches they had helping him were also surprisingly patient with the three year old drama.
I have no big dreams of Three being any sort of stand out soccer star. And I know plenty of people who think three year olds playing soccer is just plain silly. But they obviously have never seen Three pull out the ‘Soccer Monster GRRRRRRR’ when playing goalie.
And he is just so darn proud of his certificate of participation.
Three Year Old Baseball starts in the spring. I. Can. Not. Wait. Thankfully, Three is pretty excited about it too :)
So cute! Who would think a 3 year old running around outside for an hour could possibly be a waste of time? Sounds amazing.
I once heard of youth soccer referred to as “bumble bee ball” – all the kids swarming around the ball. :)