We arrived at the fields in 94 degree blazing heat with no
shade to be seen. We knew we were rookie soccer parents upon seeing a
'sea' of beach umbrella's that each parent comfortably watched the games
under. My arms and the tops of my feet were sunburned in a matter of
seconds. Note to self: buy a beach umbrella asap.
Tatum's game was first. She was so proud to be in her new uniform.
Her team name is "Purplicious". Tatum adapted surprisingly well to
practices and quickly made a few friends. She quickly does everything
the coaches ask and is very participative. Upon arrival to the game, she
ran and greeted her team-mates with smiles. As soon as the game
started, Tatum immediately went into shell shock. By "shell shock", I
mean that she stood on the sidelines and cried for the first quarter.
Coach installed her in the game for the 2nd quarter in the which she
stood in the middle of the field with her head down and sobbed. The
action continued around her and she, literally, stood there crying. Half
the parents were inquiring if she was injured. She was pulled out of
the game and she continued to cry. She was nervous. By personality, she
doesn't deal well with change so she was really struggling. Tricia and I
both talked with her to no avail. Finally, Tricia prayed with her. The
final quarter, she apologized to her coach and
asked if she could
go back in. Immediately after being put in, a slow roller came to her
with no one else around (thank goodness, no pressure from oncoming
players) and she got a solid kick. This increased her confidence and she
was in the action the remainder of the game. We were very proud of her
for working to change her attitude. I believe she will do better next
week as she has built a small amount of familiarity now. We'll see...
Lincoln is on the Green Dragons. His approach was quite
opposite of Tatum's. He, also, displayed his personality on the field.
With no skill set whatsoever, he did not struggle with aggressiveness.
He ran right out there and was immediately in all the action. He
struggled with focus, often times in his own imaginary world but was
very receptive to his coach's guidance and surprisingly receptive to the
things that we yelled in his general direction. When he did focus, his
tendency was to prevent the other team from scoring rather than gaining
interest in scoring himself. He had a number of really good saves in
preventing goals.
Near the end of Lincoln's game, and to most everyone's
approval, it began to rain. It felt fantastic. It was a happy reward to
an otherwise stressful afternoon. Nonetheless, we feel it was a
successful outing for both of our 'players'. The only downside was how
much it made me miss being a part of organized sports, in general. So
much fun! ---Bennie
Week 2
Tatum has really overcome her nervousness. She goes right in and runs
around. She tends to lose focus quickly and start turning around in
circles and junk. When someone is charging with the ball, she runs hard
and does whatever she can to look like she will kick it without actually
having to go kick it. Very active, no aggression. Lincoln is pretty
much like a teenager already...mostly giving half-efforts. He does,
however, seem to have the aggressiveness thing down. Completely unafraid
to charge, kick and the like...but no real skill-set and often doesn't
go after it because he doesn't feel like it. Teenager-ish. We are
working on it.---Bennie
