Go Silverbacks!

November 14, 2011

Go Silverbacks!

I never thought I'd say it, but I got to be a "soccer mom" these past 6 weeks. We signed our 4 & a half year old up for a team through our city's Parks and Recreation, and it was a fun experience for us all. It was a low-key, low-pressure, low-time commitment, perfect for us! The kids showed up for an hour on Saturday morning, and they did a few drills at the beginning, then proceeded with a game of 6 minute periods.

Our son really surprised us with his intensity for the game. Since it was a team of 3 and 4-year olds, our son was definitely at the upper end of the age range, which gave him a bit of an advantage. At the first game we had no idea what to expect, since he often shies away from new experiences and needs some time to get really comfortable in a new context. But our worries disappeared when that first whistle was blown, and he took off, driving the ball down the field and straight into the goal. Clearly, he was comfortable on the field.

As the games went on, our son also became very interested in defending his own goal. There were no goalies officially assigned, so the goals sat unattended much of the time. It was interesting to see how our son took it upon himself to take a full-back/goalie position & try to kick the ball away from his goal. As he played we could tell that he was really thinking about which way the ball needed to go, and we also noticed that he sort of liked to stay away from the pack, either running ahead or staying behind waiting for the ball to get kicked loose from the group.

Here are a few action shots:

Going for the goal!

Fancy footwork

What concentration!

It was a lot of fun though, to get out and watch all the kids. We got to be on the same team with a few friends of ours, so it was a nice social outlet for all of us! On the last day, they had a little awards banquet for the kids where they served them lunch & they got a trophy.