The Start of Soccer Season

Joshua's first soccer practice was on Thursday, September 6. Here he is with the other boys on his team and his coach Sarah. The blond haired boy is Luke, the coach's son. The other boy in the gray shirt is Jack. The girl on his team (Laila?) wasn't able to come to practice that day. Two children who signed up originally weren't able to play after all, so this is a small and mighty team!

The coach played some fun games (like the animal game - if you are able to kick the coach with the ball, you get to tell her what animal to pretend to be), which the kids loved. She did some various drills and they all had fun. Joshua is on the "BLACK" team in the PA Soccer Classics, and I'm so glad that he is. While this team has some work to do on their skills, the coach emphasizes having fun!

Joshua's first soccer game was on Sunday, September 9. It was the BLACK Team vs. the MAROON team at 2 pm at the Classics Soccer Field in Manheim (close to Roots). When we arrived, the coach had the jerseys and let the kids pick their number. Joshua got "6" for how old he's turning! I thought he looked so cute in his jersey, shorts, shin guards with black soccer socks and cleats.

They practiced on the field before the game started for a little bit. There's my big number 6!

Then the game started. The maroon team went right toward the goal. Joshua was appalled that there was no goalie, but these games are 3 vs. 3 with no goalie. He kept wanting to hang back and play defense to keep the other team from scoring. But, he wasn't going toward the ball to play an offensive game then (and score). His team didn't seem to really comprehend aggressively taking the ball up the field toward their own goal. Needless to say, they got beat pretty badly. Joshua asked Shawn who won, and Daddy said "it was a tie." Joshua smiled - good enough!

In the meantime, we took some pictures of us watching the game (Caleb took this one - he loves to operate the camera and he was getting bored just watching).

Ryan was getting fussy until we let him sit in a "big boy" chair. He LOVED this little seat. Looks like it's time to get him his own.

We would root for Joshua "GO! GO! GO!" Then we would snap a couple other pictures, especially at water breaks or when he would switch out.

Praise God, the weather was beautiful that day. Don't you just love the clouds in the background? Here's my little buddy!

With two boys playing soccer this season, I guess that officially makes me a "soccer mom."

We had fun watching the game, and Joshua had fun playing. The next week, the coach took the opportunity to teach them based on what happened during the game. They went toward their goal, they practiced throwing or kicking in the ball when it went out of bounds, they practiced scoring, they practiced defense, etc. They're getting more and more skills while still having a great time!

Here's my hottie hubby! We now take turns going to games because the other kids weren't too thrilled about being there that afternoon.

Here's my handsome soccer son - GREAT job during your first game. As the coach's husband said "He's pretty smart to start playing defense when we didn't teach him that." Way to go!