kicking off fall soccer

we took to the soccer fields for our first double-header saturday.  we lucked out with back to back games so that we wouldn't have to choose  who to watch.  i had to take pictures in the parking lot because you could almost feel the excitement mason and madelyn had about playing today.  mason especially.  he has really been waiting and waiting to play.  although today was just a practice for him.

we set up under a shade tree while we waited for madelyn's game to start.  matt took the big kids in for a bathroom break and to buy mason a jersey.

and now they were both ready to hit the fields!

while madelyn was starting to warm-up, the big boys went to test out mason's new ball (and then i noticed that they were all three wearing blue).

and manning was just keeping busy by tossing the contents of our bags onto the field and sideline.

madelyn was chosen to kick the ball for the start of the game (i am not a soccer player so terminology is not my strength).  she kicked it in, ran, kicked it again and then got drilled in the arm by the other team. seriously, not even 30 seconds into the first game of the season madelyn is crying, injured and leaving the game.

her coaches were awesome about it!  the one on the field allowed her to leave the game.  he was sending her to the 'bench' where the rest of the team and her other coach was but she found me and ran over.  the coach on the sideline came over and asked if she got hit in the arm.  when she said yes and showed him where, he said, "wow, that must have hurt a lot.  when you feel well enough to play come over and see me."  what impressed me was that he never addressed me.  and it wasn't rude it was just that this was about madelyn.  i loved that he acknowledged that it was okay to say that it hurt and that she would be able to go right back in.  and she did!  she played the entire rest of the game too.

i stood up for just a second and manning scrambled up into my chair.  and then his task of the day was decided, climbing in and out of the folding chairs. i never got to sit down again.

this year madelyn is on a bigger field with bigger goals and a longer period - 10 minutes each.  she asked to be on defense when she decided that she didn't like running so much.  but she was still very much engaged in the game - for a while.  i had to call her name a few times when she turned her back to the play and was chatting with the goalie.  when i spoke with her about it later today, i explained that she can't turn her back on the ball.  to which she explained, "it hurts a lot less to get hit in the back of the head than in the front."  yep.  i guess it does.

i like how madelyn is giving instruction at the start of this video.  it is just a little random section of their game.

in the last quarter she even got to take a turn as goalie.  i am not sure that this is a great fit for her...

here she is waving at me as the ball is coming her way.

and this is where ball was a lot for her team - that is her getting it out of the net.

and here she is just kicking the ground.  sigh.  it takes everything i have not to try and coach her from the sidelines.  but her coaches are really great and she was happy to be there the entire time.

at halftime the score was 0-4 so her team got to add another player to the field as a 'mercy' rule.  madelyn told me that the final score was 1-4 but i think it was more like 1-10.  the other team was a lot better.  but we were so proud of madelyn recovering from her early injury and giving it her all through the whole game.

but now it was time to race over to mason's field. madelyn's field was running behind schedule so we were late to watch mason.  matt and mason had already headed over so that they would be on time.  madelyn's field was so much later that i had to ask a parent we knew to watch the littles while i ran the team snack over to matt, who is coaching, because i was afraid i wasn't going to make it before they were done.

mason has been excited about soccer since spring and he was looking pretty good, when he was listening anyway.  matt has his hands full this season.  there are a lot of 'high energy' boys on the team.  they were trying to destroy the goal at more than one point.  mason was just playing in his own world cup and not listening to any of matt's instruction.  but i will saw that he was the fastest one out there.  we are very interested to see how mason does in his first game in a few weeks.

here is a dribbling drill...

and then they got to practice kicking goals.  i was holding the goal in place after the last episode of destruction.

we only have two games all season where they will play at the same time.  i had not really considered that we might have to deal with the fields running at different speeds and the game length difference.  i don't know what we will do when/if there are ever four at once!  

we are excited for what should be a fun season!  love.