Soccer Mom

I officially became a Soccer Mom!

Caleb decided that he wanted to play Spring Soccer this year.  We learned about a group called Upward from our friends, and decided to enroll our boys together.  They are run by a local Pioneer Baptist Church and are amazing!  It is such a great league.  Well organized, Christian based, and they do so much for the kids.  Caleb was chosen to play on the Rottweilers.  It was a super cute team full of very shy, inexperienced players with 2 High School boys who had never coached before.  Needless to say we were not the winning team in the league or even close, but we most definitely were the most improved and had a lot of fun!

Before the games, the kids were able to run through the sign and have their names announced.  This is the beginning of the first game.

  Before each game and during practices, the players said a prayer and even memorized scriptures that helped talk about good sportsmanship.  I loved how the focus was on sportsmanship.

Our poor kids had no idea how to play soccer. They didn't know to chase after the ball or what to after they threw the ball in. Our first game, we didn't score a point! The other team had an aggressive little boy that like to push and pull teammates down by their jersey, our players were happy to stay away from him. Check out the little video of our first game. We are the green team.

 

Our first game was a blow out.  And our little team only scored one point in 3 games.  Caleb was fortunate to score the teams first goal.  We did win one game and actually scored 7 goals that game.  I was so proud of Caleb, he scored 3 of the goals that day and actually helped his friend score one of them.  He could have easily scored himself, but he chose to help his friend score instead.  We couldn't have been more proud of him!   

Our Last Game

Well the Rottweilers came a long way this season and we are so proud of them.  For their last game we played the team we played the first game.  They beat us again, but not by much and we sure worked hard.  I loved this team because the kids were fairly evenly matched, no one was mean, aggressive or a ball hog, and they worked together well.  I had to get some videos of how much we had improved and let the grandparents see Caleb in action.

Just a reminder that you can always click on the pictures and make them bigger.  Caleb is in blue this time.

This video caught a very Caleb moment.  Caleb was really fast and often had break aways with the ball.  However, he still has to learn control and although he had a lot of chances to score a goal, they didn't usually go in.  It sure was fun to see him hustle though and become much more focused and aggressive going after the ball.  He was always kind though and very aware of his teammates.

Caleb loved soccer and learned so much.  It was neat to watch him be a part of a team sport.  This league is amazing.  They got to keep their cute uniforms with socks and received a water bottle and were rewarded with a brand new soccer ball.  We will most definitely continue doing sports with Upward.

Caleb's Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Folwell, came to his last game.  It was so fun to have her with us!

Caleb and our friend Ryan with our great coaches, Marcus and Cameron.  I was so proud of these coaches.  They sure tried hard and were extremely patient and kind with the kids.  I am sure it wasn't easy for two High School soccer players to lose so much but they were really great.

 

We love soccer (much to Dad's chagrin).  Dad is voting for baseball next, but Mom thinks that it is too boring for now. Maybe later.  We will see who wins out!