It's Official...

I'm a soccer mom.  I've always been a mom who played soccer, but now I am a mini-van driving, pep-talk giving, thirty-something soccer mom, and I couldn't be more proud (well, except for the mini-van part).  Zach had his first official soccer "practice" on Friday evening.  It was COLD, but fun!  I hesitated to sign him up for his first organized sport at just 3 and a half years-old, but I'm glad I did.  It's not like regular team soccer, anyway.  There were probably 50 kids there from ages 3-5.  Each kid was assigned to a group and given a penny, and then after some large-group warming up, the smaller groups traveled from station to station together.  The first station for Zach's group was scrimmaging (which was quite a sight!), then they went to a station where they played a dribbling game, and the final place was duck-duck-goose and shooting the ball on goal.  Zach just had a blast.  His favorite part was the scrimmaging, which didn't surprise me, because before we went he kept asking if he was going to get to play a soccer game or not.  The whole thing is put on by Vision Soccer Academy, which is a big soccer club out here in our area.  The main organizer for the Grasskickers Soccer, as it's called, is a friend of mine who plays on my co-ed team, so Zach thought that was pretty cool, too.  Some of the other people helping out were girls from one of the teams that Melody coaches, I think.  They all did a great job with the kids.  Zach can't wait to go back this week, and neither can I.  I just hope it's a little warmer this time.

Here's Zach modeling his new shin guards, cleats, and ball the night we got them.  I think I had more fun than he did going to get these.  They're so little and cute!  So far he has loved putting them on and playing soccer in the basement.

This is the all-group warm-up at the beginning of the session.  This kids are supposed to be putting their left foot on the ball.  I like this picture because every kid in it who is holding up the L for his/her left hand is doing so with his/her right hand!  Apparently we need to work on left and right.

Zach is focusing hard on what he's doing.

These next few pictures are not that interesting because you can only see Zach from the back, but I think they're kind of neat because the show the progression of him dribbling the ball.  In the second to last picture in this series, it looks like Zach is cutting the ball back like he's juking somebody.  The kid's got moves already!

Here Zach is working really hard to get the ball from the kid in yellow.  I think the kid in yellow scored right after this picture was taken, though.  It's no surprise that we need to work on defense- at home when we play, Zach's defense consists of running back and standing in the goal so I can't get the ball past him.

This is the quintessential little kid at soccer practice picture- sitting on the ball.  This time, however, it's just Zach doing what the coach said to do.