Soccer has begun

Well, it actually began over a month ago, but I’m a slacker and haven’t posted about it yet.



Ari’s 4th game of the season was on Saturday. It was the first away game, it was the third game played in above 100° temperatures and it was a tie. The girls weren’t thrilled…the first three games were wins and I think they really enjoyed the feeling of being undefeated. Of course they are still “undefeated” but it’s not the same when you have a tie on your record. I think the girls are playing really well together and I’m always impressed with how Ari is improving with her soccer skills. She in U12 this year…U12 is the first division where the kids are allowed to do headers…Ari’s done three (more than anyone else on her team)! She always makes sure we were watching too…”did you see that header I did?” As a mom I’m not so sure I’m thrilled with that. I’m glad she’s not afraid of the ball. I’m glad she’s using skills that she’s learning. But, can’t kids get brain damage from doing too many headers? Maybe I need to tell her to lay off the headers for a while, oh say, 5-10 years maybe?















(I think this picture is hilarious, although Ari might not be thrilled ;-)...it just goes to show that even after playing soccer in over 100° heat for over an hour she still has enough energy to run for the snack...ha ha ha!)


I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m not the type of mom to get really into the games. I go to every game and I cheer when I’m able to pay attention enough to know what’s going on (I do chase an almost two year old around for half of the games), but I don’t yell at the girls telling them where to be and what to be doing. Actually it was an interesting observation playing this away game. She doesn’t usually play away games and this was a community about 45 minutes away. I noticed that the parents there tended to be more of the yelling type. Their girls also tended to be more of the “aggressive” type (read pushing our team all over the field…Ari was literally lifted up off her feet and landed on her side…her coach told her “way to take one for the team” which just made her smile). We don’t see a whole lot of that in our community and I’m glad. I think it’s nice to let the kids learn the sport without the parents turning into raging idiots. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it hurt the girls one bit to be “roughed up” a little. It just shows them what they might come up against, but I’m glad that’s not what it’s all about around here. I’m sure it will be soon enough, but for now they are hopefully learning valuable skills and good sportsmanship.