One Whole Soccer Season

Miss Morgan played soccer last fall...it was pretty much a disaster. She came up to me after the first game and I asked her if she had had fun, and she stated NO. I asked her why and she told me, "Mom, I do not like to run, I do not like to kick, I do NOT like soccer." I figured that we were done with that and I was okay with it. Abbie however loved to play on the side-line with an older sister of one of Morgan's teammates. She did really well, so I decided to fudge her age a little bit and put her on a team this spring. When Morgan heard that Abbie was going to play, she too decided she wanted to give soccer another try. So that is how I became an official soccer mom of two this spring.

I learned that the age requirement of the league is most likely there for a reason. Although Abbie was bigger than most of her teammates she really didn't get the concept of soccer. She loved the first ten seconds of every play. She would kick the ball and do really well...again for the first 10 seconds. Then the fire within burnt out and the flowers on the field were more appealing than the game. If there were no flowers, Abbie did quite well entertaining herself. She would run in the opposite direction of the ball and do twirls until she was so dizzy that she fell down. If nothing else she kept the sidelines entertained.

Abbie and her team...she fit right in with her physical build.
Abbie during those first ten seconds of play!

Although Abbie's soccer experiment failed, Morgan had a complete turn around. She was a completely different player from fall to spring. She was aggressive (as much as a five year old can be), she went after the ball, and she even scored a goal. At one point during the second game when she was being a rock star, a brother of one of her teammates from fall asked his Mom when Morgan got so good. After the spring session she decided that she really did like soccer. Now she can't wait for Uncle Mark to come play soccer with her. She even goes out in the hall to kick the ball around. What a transformation!

Morgan's soccer team. Morgan's coach is my colleague's husband...it worked out really well!

Morgan got to play goalie for a bit every game, she really liked it.
Morgan in action...