Welcome to Saturday
Today is a pretty big day for most you: it’s an international weekend and that means that you’re probably looking forward to seeing the United States play tonight and that you’ll be warming up for that match by watching your other favorite national team (Scotland!) play this afternoon. I’m excited to do both of those things, but for me, there’s a more important match kicking off at 9:30 this morning.
This morning I’ll be on the sidelines as my 4 and a half year old nieces finishes up her first season playing soccer. Who knows if she’ll stick with it (she’s currently at that age where she’s giving everything a try- tee-ball, dance, swimming lessons, gymnastics, you name it), but you better believe I’m doing my part! In addition to making a two hour drive to see her play for what will likely be less than an hour long match, you may remember that in the first four years of her life her Christmas and Birthday gifts from me have included:
- A New England Revolution track suit
- A New England Revolution t-shirt
- A pair of Sambas
- A Boston Breakers backpack
- A Boston Breakers mini-ball
- A set of cones
- A Johnny Cash “onesie” (just to make sure she’s keepin’ it real)
You may also remember that her mom recently bought her these.
In addition, I think we’ve all done or are doing are part on the genetic level. My sister in-law comes from an athletic family, my brother is an excellent golfer and hockey player, my sister was a three sport high school athlete and a two sport college athlete, and yous truly was lucky enough to play in one of the most successful high school soccer programs in the country.
But none of that matters because she’s going to be great, I know it.
How do I know it?
They gave her the #10 shirt.
Rock on, munchkin.
So you’re willing to make a two hour drive to watch the game, but you can’t take 1 minute to tweet us a result!!!
“Result?” That’s a philosophical question that simply cannot be answered by somebody of my limited capacity. It was a four team round-robin “tournament” during which I saw exactly ONE player who knew what they were doing…and it wasn’t my niece! In an hour and a half I watched my niece hold hands with her teammates, become absolutely fascinated with the Field Turf (she’d never played on it before), run along the boards waving to us while the game went on behind her, and more often than not run the wrong way when she did decided to take part. She was not unique in any of these activities. Nor was it any less precious when she did it.
I’m not making any judgments yet, though. I know from working with 6-8 year olds at soccer camps that it’s going to be a while before “soccer” is anything more than running around with her in the general vicinity of a ball.