Are you ready for some football?

This labor day weekend marks the beginning of the college football season. But last weekend marked the beginning of the season for a different kind of football known around here as soccer. Whitney has been playing in the AYSO league for a couple of years, but this year Patrick makes his soccer debut.
Whitney was excited to learn that she gets to play on the bigger fields this year. She was also excited to find that one of her friends from the neighborhood is on her team. The girl’s mother and Kate are now co-team moms. So now I am officially married to a hot soccer mom!
Whit only has seven girls on her team, and the teams need a minimum of seven girls to field a team, which means that there is no issue about playing time. This year marks the first time that Whit’s team has had goalies. In the second quarter of the game she had the chance to try her hand at goalie. During that quarter there were only two shots on goal, and she stopped them both. After she was rotated out of the goalie position, her team gave up five goals, all without scoring one of their own. Not that she cared. She has a good time and made some friends, so I don’t care if they win or lose.

Patrick’s game was a little different. There are about fifty boys and girls in the four year old age group, so they are all just one team. Each week they spend the first thirty minutes teaching the kids stretching techniques and teaching fundamentals of the game. Then the kids are broken up into teams of five to play a scrimmage. So he will have different teammates each week. But I’ve found at that age group that the kids just don’t get it, which makes for very entertaining soccer. Patrick scored a goal, as did most of the kids on the team. Some of them even picked up the ball to get it away from the other kids.

Watching games this week reminded me of the difference in how boys are treated in sports. While watching Whitney’s game I also kept an eye on the game on the next field, which was boys of Whitney’s age, about 8 or 9. During Whitney’s game, a girl from the opposing team was struck by the soccer ball, being caught right under the chin. She went down, and the game was stopped while she was walked off the field in tears. Less than ten minutes later I witnessed a similar situation in the boys’ game. A young man who was playing goalie was struck by the soccer ball while trying to stop a goal. The ball had been kicked very close to his head and struck him directly on the ear. He stopped the shot, and his teammates took the ball in the other direction, while he stayed on the ground for a moment. The game was not stopped, and the boy got up, rubbing his now red ear. I guess that even at that age they teach the boys to “rub a little dirt in it” when they get hurt. It’s just not manly to cry or show pain. The boys of the league also get better colors for jerseys. The boys get hard colors like reds, blues and blacks. The girls on the other hand, get pastels, pinks, purples, and in Whit’s case neon yellow.
At any rate, a good time was had by all, and I am excited to see multiple games each week. Samantha enjoys the game too, because I let her take her own soccer ball and kick goals between quarters.




On another note….

This week while babysitting a neighbor girl who is Patrick’s age, Kate caught Patrick and the girl photocopying their faces on the copier in our office. I have no doubt that P was the ringleader of this malarkey. But I have added examples of the kinds of images Patrick made of himself. Kate was not as amused as I am. But then again I am a simpleton and easily entertained…