Tots Soccer

Frances has started soccer.

We've been to one session so far. They do a little "practice" and then scrimmage with one of the three other teams.

Frances is in a 3-4 year old division and I'll admit that at first I was a little intimidated. A good portion of the kids had shin guards on. They looked really serious about it.

The whole thing is just amazingly entertaining. Little kids running around who have basically no idea what they are supposed to be doing.

Things from having to find a partner to kicking the ball back and forth with that partner were completely new concepts to some of these kids (including Frances). It was obvious that one kid only really played "goalie" with his family because it took a while for the coaches to stop him from diving on the ball each time it came to him.

But the real fun came when they started the scrimmage. It was just barely controlled chaos. These kids had never done anything like this.

There were kids joining the opposing teams huddles (after goals). There were kids crying because they weren't allowed to use their hands. There was a ball and a pack of kids all trying to put a foot on it.

There were a couple kids that looked way bigger than the others. They did most of the scoring.

It took Frances a couple minutes to figure out what she was supposed to be doing. But then she was right there in the middle of it. She even scored a goal.

One of the bigger kids dribbled toward the goal from the right but overshot it. In the ensuing melee, Frances got the ball, kicked it a couple times toward the goal and then kicked it in. That was pretty neat.

It was hard not to try and yell directions to Frances. Generally speaking, I'm pretty competetive. Now, I understand all those "crazy" parents who are always yelling to their kids. I had to work hard to keep quiet.

Frances really enjoyed the experience. So did we. It should be fun next week too.

mwz