Soccer

Fall soccer season has started and after two years of Little Kicker camps, Linus is finally old enough to start playing on a team in the entry level league.  Fidget has moved up a league after four seasons/two years.  And, I've become a volunteer coach for Linus' team.  We are now officially dividing and conquering on Saturdays - I go to one field with Linus, and Kd goes to the other with Fidget.

Soccer for Linus has been a mixed bag so far.  We've had two games, he's had two meltdowns - the first one because he wanted a juice pouch before the game was over instead of his water bottle, and the second because I rotate the in-bounds kicks and throws between the boys and I wouldn't give him a kick out of turn.  When he's engaged, and not too tired, Linus is right in after the ball.  Our first game, he stole the ball from an older boy who was easily four or five inches taller, and in our second game, he chased around and got some touches on the ball.  He has yet to score, but I think he'll get there by the end of the year.  When Linus is tired though, he joins the butterfly catching patrol, and that's usually about the time the meltdowns have hit.

Fidget is now in a league with seven girls a side on the field at once, including a goalie.  We thought for certain that she would be in heaven having the opportunity to play goalie since she spent the better part of her first few seasons playing defense and goalie in a league that doesn't have goalies and is focused mainly on offense and scoring.  I got to see her second game since we played at different times this past weekend.  Fidget played great defense the first half and outran several of the girls back and forth and up and down the field.  She got the ball several times and managed a few passes up the field to her teammates on offense.  At the half, she switched to goalie.  And, we discovered that as much as she likes to be in the goal, she also likes to go after the ball.  She was scored on twice on balls she didn't have much of a chance at, but her highlights had to be the ball she dove for, putting herself parallel to the ground in an Olympic-caliber attempt to block the ball (successful), and when her coach yelled from the far end of the field, "[Fidget]!!!  Get back in the goal!!!" as she was in the mix of girls trying to get a foot on the ball nearer to mid-field than the goal.