Tanner's Soccer Debut

We have ventured off the beaten path this year and signed up for soccer!  None of my kids have ever played soccer before and neither have Zac nor I, though discussion has kicked around with the boys for years about thinking about trying it instead of baseball.  Tanner was finally brave enough to try it.  I felt like a visitor to a foreign country when we went to sign up.  Everything was so unfamiliar to me.  On the way to the first practice, Tanner's eyes were big and realization started to set in that he doesn't "actually" know how to play soccer.  He started to become really nervous questioning his abandonment of baseball, especially after watching his brother eating up every minute of his baseball season.  When we got to that first practice, we were surprised to see such a wide range of ages, nationality, and gender on Tanner's team.  He has girls on his team 2-3 years older than him that are about a foot taller.  In order to have a Blackfoot league, we have to combine age groups and genders in order to have enough teams to play against each other.  And seemingly every player had played before.  After the first practice was over, Tanner and I spent the next week perusing Internet sites and You Tube channels trying to figure out the rules to soccer and the positions... which the coach didn't seem to go over much during practice.  When the first game arrived I really wasn't sure what to expect.  Fortunately, the league has an equal play policy, so experienced or not, I knew Tanner would get a shot to play.

I was so proud!  He really got in there and did his best.  His team won that first game 9-2!!!  Our sessions of Internet learning really seemed to pay off for both of us as Tanner's understanding of the game grew and I was even able to somewhat follow what was going on.  I was anxious for the game to end to see what he thought of it all.  When he jumped in the Suburban the first words out of his mouth were, "Mom, that was so awesome!  I love soccer!  I am doing this again next year!"  And he even has his brother convinced to drop baseball next year and join him.  Not Ashlyn though, she is pretty sure soccer involves running and she is not going to be tricked.  She is going to stick with softball!