He scored a goal today, his first one ever. His father, the coach, was so excited. I, who can only attend 2 games this season because of a scheduling conflict with older daughter's dance class, was miraculously on hand to see it. I would have photographed it, but I was so busy being in the moment, cheering and all, that taking a picture just slipped my mind. It was awesome, and it made standing around in 40 degree weather with a sharp, damp wind totally worth it.
Another family, watching their son, was not as happy. They yelled at their boy repeatedly: things like "Stop farting around out there!" and "Pay attention!" and let me tell you that they were mad. All this irritation, and their kid scored 3 goals. Heck, my kid scored once and it was almost certainly by accident, and his father and I were thrilled. This is, after all, pee wee soccer, three on three with no goalie. Half the time the kids don't even know which goal is theirs, let alone how to get a ball into it. Watching these parents and their tension over this game was really off-putting.
It does go a long way toward explaining why our team has had so much trouble with this boy shoving his own team members. 'Cause you know, it's tough to score with all those pesky teammates in the way. Forget building skills and understanding the fundamentals of the game -- can't be a star with all those other kids hogging the ball. To me, in my little pollyanna reality bubble, it seems too early to get so worked up over a sport, but some friends of ours just pulled their 8 year old out of our soccer league because the game had become so competitive that their son couldn't move around and try new positions for fear they might lose a game. And they were 8. As in eight years old. Holy cow. Remember when sports were so that kids could get together and have some fun?
Lighten up, people.
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