Goal!!

Tate has wanted to play Soccer for quite some time. I finally signed him up and lastTuesday was his first game. I remember when I was little and my little brother played soccer, he cried his first time on the field. Of course he was 4, but still, that is what I remember of first soccer games. I played soccer when I was little and my memories of that were playing goalie, just wating for the dang ball to come my way so I could actually be part of the game. Our team was the Purple People Eaters (we were purple).

I was excited that he had his first game, but I somewhat dreaded watching a bunch of little kids circling the ball, kicking eachother's shins, unable to figure out why the ball won't go anywhere... This game was totally different! I loved every minute of it!

As we arrived at the ball field, tate kept telling me things like "mom, its not whther you win or lose, it's how you play the game" I said, "but you wanna win!" "It's okay if we don't mom, as long as we're having fun!" Where did this kid get this stuff??

Tate started as a full-back (this position stands a little ways in front of the goal and helps to protect the goal) Except for the occasional trip to the other side of the field, Tate did an awesome job protecting the goal. Anytime the ball was anywhere near him, he was after it and kicked it away.

Next, he played goalie. Oh no, here we go with total boredom...Nope! Tate was so good at goalie. He stopped every ball that came to the goal (like 6 or 7) and when his team-mates were at the other end of the field you'd hear Tate shouting things like "Come on guys, we can do this!" and "Kick that ball!" So stinkin cute! After half time he wanted to stay goalie but they put him in as a forward. Here is where he struggled just a bit. He'd be kicking the ball down field ready to score and then see one of his teamates close by and he'd back off so they could take the ball. He got an assist on one goal!

His team won, and we heard about it for hours afterward. For a kid who struggles to focus on things, this game kept his focus very well!!

Kamron and I did find it comical that the 2 fullbacks on the other team were climbing the goal posts that whole time, and the goalie was lying on the ground singing to himself...

Dang it - my internet connection is having serious difficulty in loading the pictures onto here. I will add them to this post as soon as it will allow me. (Thank you for your patience in this matter)