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Soccer Memories

From my view in the stands

By Kelly HornePublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Soccer Memories
Photo by Rahadiansyah on Unsplash

Soccer is a popular children’s sport in our area. I never played, but I grew up watching my nephew play. Must mention here that my nephew is only six years younger than me so I was not an adult when I first fell in love with the game.

By Ben Hershey on Unsplash

I remember my first encounter with a too eager team mom was during these years. My sister called out “go bulldozer” to one of our smallest team members, like she always had done. Anyone who saw who she was yelling this to, knew that bulldozer was just a nickname to show camaraderie. Mother on the other team did not take too kindly to my sister yelling for our littlest team member to “bulldoze” her son. Her son was twice the size as our team member. Just saying.

By Samuel Horn af Rantzien on Unsplash

My daughter never took to soccer. She liked to kick a ball around, but never wanted to play on a team. There are reasons behind that decision that we now look back on and understand. At the time though, I was a little disappointed.

By Julien Rocheblave on Unsplash

My son tried one season. He was only 4 or 5 when he played. It was his first time playing a sport and the team was more or less just about teaching the basics. Most of the time they just played “games” against each other. My son loved being outdoors, but was too young to care about a game.

We first figured this out when after they had learned a new skill, they played their first “game” where half the team went up against the other half the team. A few team members were sitting out on the sidelines and the coach was taking turns making sure to sub out the players so everyone got to play. My son got called in, and ran one time after the ball and everyone else. Not too much longer, and he subbed himself out. We had seen him picking clovers on the sidelines with another child and after running the field once, he figured out that he could just give up his spot. That way he could sit and pick leaves with another child and let everyone else chase after the ball.

By kiki Wang on Unsplash

We did not give up. We talked to him about waiting for the coach to sub you out and how the game was to get the ball from the other team and make a goal or pass it to a teammate. We were trying to reinforce the tips the coach had gone over.

Next time I remember him being out on the field, the entire team got to the field too early and we had to wait for the team coach. As we waited, the kids all got together in the field and figured out there were ladybugs everywhere. They immediately all started gathering ladybugs and letting them crawl on their hands. They were all showing how many they had found with each other.

By Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

The coach gets to the field and starts trying to get the kids to do warm ups and remember the actions they had learned the prior practice. Each time there is even a minute lag for a child, that child would be down on their hands and knees picking up ladybugs. The coach finally caught on and figured it would keep them all busy if they just went ahead and played a “game” against each other. Never could get everyone together though, because every child out there kept being distracted by ladybugs. We finally said we should change our team name to ladybugs. Never did, but it gave us parents the best belly laugh.

There is no one currently playing sports in my family, and while it means more time for other things, I am a little sad of that fact. Sports teach many skills that are important as a child grows up. My daughter did play t-ball when she was younger, but then she switched to volleyball. She’s given that up as well now. I miss it, even though at the time she was playing, it did seem to make our schedule a little more hectic.

By Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

My husband thought he was going to get our son to play football, but I think he has changed his mind. Our son is built strong, but his heart is all soft. I want him to learn the team building skills he would get out of a sport, but I just don’t know if he would be up to taking a ball away from someone, or worse, tackling someone, as my husband thought he would like to see him play football.

By Dave Adamson on Unsplash

So, I just have my memories of the kids when they were younger playing sports on dvds. I still hold out hope that my son will take part of something team wise, even if sports is not in the cards for us. Maybe a robotic team with 4-H or some sort of science league is more up his alley. I’m cool with either, but I do want him to have that experience of leaning on a teammate and helping your teammates out. I think it’s important for a child to have those experiences to be ready for the real world, where sometimes you will have to collaborate to get a job done; whether job related, or personal.

By Hannah Busing on Unsplash

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About the Creator

Kelly Horne

Married. Loving mother to my daughter and son. Full time employee of local government office as an Admin Asst. Currently in process of obtaining my Master's Degree in Library Science.

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