Soccer 2012

Our first jaunt into team sports started out with a bang.  Avery loved feeling like she was a part of something, loved being treated like an athlete, and loved being a Green Dragon.  (Incidentally, when the team was coming up with a name, Avery's suggestion was, "The Practicers".)

After the first month or so of practices and the first game we made it to, though, the excitement started to wear off.

By the end of the season, we'd only made it to half of the games (bad planning on my part, but it worked out well since the games weren't Avery's favorite part).  We noticed by the last few games, though, that most parents had very lofty goals for their children: "Kick the ball into the goal!"  "Wow!  Let's see how many goals you can score this game!"  or even, "Kick the ball down the field!"

Our goals for Avery were slightly different:
"Try really hard to get to touch the ball with your foot at least once this game, ok?"
And, "If you can play and really try without complaining during this game, we'll go swimming right after!"

Just like in school when a teacher modifies the assignment so her students can all achieve their level of success, we found this strategy to work well for our Soccer Girl as well.

When she got her trophy, the coach called her, "Hardest Kicker", which was true: when she touched the ball, she did have a powerful kick.  Avery took the trophy, beamed ear to ear, and then told me, "I think I'm ready to do dance instead of soccer next year."  Sounds good, big girl.  Sounds good.

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