10/7/09

Neil's sports debut...

If you know my husband you know that he is a huge sports fan.  He not only likes sports but he plays lots of sports...I say he plays year round but he quickly corrects me and says he does not play year round because he doesn't play in the summer...whatever, he plays flag football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring.  And come to think of it, he usually starts training for some marathon in the summer...so I guess I'm right after all :)

Anyway...we had 2 girls before we had Neil and now that Rick has a boy and now that he is 4 Rick has been dying to get him on some sports team...doesn't matter what sport.  Well, the city wouldn't let him start Neil a year early for flag football (although Rick certainly tried)...Neil and Rick were very disappointed.  But no fear...Rick's good friend Ben let him know that the YMCA has a soccer league for 3-4 year olds.  So, of course, Rick's comes home, walks through the door and immediately tells Neil he get to play soccer...Neil is, of course, soooo excited because he is already just as obsessed as his Dad.  Did I mention Rick didn't bother asking his wife if she was okay with this...just for the record I would have said yes, but it would have been nice to have a choice about whether to add one more activity to our already very busy schedule. So, now Neil is playing soccer and Rick is the assistant coach. 

Neil was so excited about playing that he talked about it for days and couldn't wait.  Poor little guy...the first game was at 12pm and it was sooooo hot.  His excitement quickly turned to a look of 'this is not at all what I thought it would be like' look.  He ran around and did great but he was HOT and so tired by the end.  He kicked the ball a few times and even broke away from the group once and was running toward the goal and about to kick the ball in to score when his own team mate ran up and pushed him down from behind...you should have seen the look on Neil's face when he whipped his head around to see who pushed him down.  I felt so bad for him...and I wanted to do something not so nice to the other boy who stole his moment of glory.  But that is what it's like playing soccer in a 3-4 year old league...all they do is run around and push each other and try to kick the ball.  It is definately every man for himself out there.



They all hold hands at the begining and learn a little sportmanship lesson...it's really cute.  They forget what they were told as soon as the whistle blows.




Here's Neil playing goalie...his face is so red, poor guy, he was sweating so bad and I think the ball came toward him once and basically stopped as it got to him...although I like to pretend that he made a great stop.




Okay...I was very impressed with my action shot here with the camera.  It may not look like they are in the middle of the game but they are...even though some kids are facing the wrong way...one boy is taking off his shirt.  Actually, the coaches are on the field running around with the kids and coaching them while being in the game with them.  It's cute.

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