When I was five my mom tricked me into playing soccer. She told me my best friend Zoe was playing. Apparently Zoe’s mom told her I was playing… and a few weeks later we were the only two girls on a green team called Rational Moving.
Those first games were rough— I’m told I would just hide my face as the bunch ball swarm buzzed through me. I don’t remember not liking it. But I don’t remember liking it either. At some point things must have changed because I think I’ve been playing soccer ever since.
So of course I signed Jake up for soccer when he was only 18-months-old. He liked it. He dribbled around the house and ran around the field. He was expected to know colors and directions and body parts. He didn’t speak English.
Then when he was five I signed him up for a poorly organized AYSO league that combined practice and games into an hour on Saturdays. There was no team name. There were torrents of tears and meltdowns and all he cared about was the trophy. The following year I signed him up for soccer again in the PAL league. It had a weekly practice and a Saturday game with real refs and goals with goalies. I distinctly remember many episodes of a certain someone crying irrationally and yelling “strong words” at me to the tune of, “I HATE soccer! Why did you sign me up? I HATE ALL sports! I never want to play sports again for the rest of my life!” Yes, the athlete in me died a little.
But then my friend Kristen told me heartily, “Give it until Season 3. There’s something about when they get three seasons under their belt— it’ll change.”
I trusted her wisdom and prayed she would be right. I mean really, what else are we going to do with two high-energy, strong-willed boys for the next 11-13 years besides scheduling them chock-a-block into various sports to exhaust them so fully that they can’t even muster a strong word that begins with “h”?
And now it’s Season 3 for Jake on the Goalbreakers (Jake’s suggestion), and Season 2 for Nate on the Yellow Jackets (he was really gunning for the Fireball Phoenixes). When I cheer, “Go Green!” Jake corrects me, “It’s teal Mom. We’re teal.” Like, duh… Teal is infamously more menacing.
Jake is a changed human being. He wants to go to practice. He can’t wait for his games. He plays soccer voluntarily at recess. He asks us to take him down to the school on weekends so we can kick the ball around. Say whuuuut?
At his first game he scored his first two goals and saved two others. He’s transformed from the kid who never touched the ball, to the kid with a great block and a powerful kick. Fortunately, Nate’s been a proponent since Season 1. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do the Fred Flintstone gearing-up run that he used to do in defense as someone was coming toward him… I’m kicking myself for never capturing it on tape.
In any case, our Saturdays are so much fun now. We’ve transitioned from Irrational Immobility… to Rational Moving.