Soccer

I love to play soccer. I played when I was a kid, starting in 5th grade. I was able to petition and start up a girls' soccer team when I entered high school (because I was not permitted to play on the boys' team, since it was a contact sport). When we were engaged, I convinced my husband to join me on a co-ed adult soccer team. He had never played before. He was naturally athletic. I was still a klutz. He had an Ok time, but was not very impressed. I had a blast. I even sprained my ankle during a game, and still thought it was a blast.

When our Jersey #1 was in kindergarten, I volunteered to coach her first soccer team. My husband reluctantly became the team referee, because I had no luck getting the other parents to help out much. I had a blast coaching. My husband liked being the ref for his kid's game, but disliked that we were shouldering so much responsibility for the team. [He had a point: there were days when I was standing on the sidelines, coaching with Jersey #4 strapped to my chest in an infant carrier, and Jersey #2 & #3 playing at my feet, while my husband was on the field as referee....while a slew of parents and grandparents from our team sat on the sidelines to watch the game, but not volunteer for anything!] I was not able to coach this past soccer year, when we've had 2 soccer players, because Jersey #5 was due to be born during the Fall soccer season. Instead, I became Team Mom for both teams, and my husband became team referee for Jersey #2's team.

As much as I love soccer, I sure was happy to see this soccer season end yesterday. It turned out that with 2 daughters playing soccer on 2 different teams, at least half of their games overlapped or were scheduled at the same time. Instead of attending soccer games as a family and cheering on our girls, we were split up, going in two different directions. That was no fun. We rounded out the season with a finale reminiscent of that first soccer year....I was asked to coach for Jersey #2's team (because her coach was out of town that day), and my husband was the referee for that game! I will include a couple pictures. The really cool part was that Jersey #2 was thrilled to have her Mom coach her team...I had a blast coaching....and she scored her first goal that game!