The end of the Soccer Season

Today was Ali's last soccer game. I signed Ali up for soccer reluctantly. I did not play sports as a kid and have never really even watched a soccer game. But she wanted to play and Daddy wanted her to play too. So I agreed to sign her up. I was a little intimidated by one soccer practice per week and then a game on Saturday. When her coach decided they needed to play soccer twice a week I was very intimidated. I was not sure that any six year old sports team needed that much devotion. But I faithfully took her to practices and attended the games.

That first game was very difficult for my little Ali. They had only one practice under their belts and she did not even understand the game. She didn't really know what the point was and hardly kicked the ball once during the time she was played. She seemed more interested in butterflies, clouds and the grass underneath her.

Fast forward to today. She now understands the game. She knows that she is supposed to keep that ball away from her team. She is a great defender and kept lots of balls from going in the goal. She is learning to dribble the ball, learning how to throw a ball in, learning how to kick a corner kick and a goal kick, and learning how to pay attention to the game. It seems to me that she came very far this year in soccer. She was the only one who had never played before and the youngest on her team. Although she never scored a goal this year, she assisted a lot of players, ran down the field while dribbling the ball a lot of times and learned a lot about the sport.

Today she also took a major hit to her stomach which left a perfect soccer ball impression for her to remember the game by. She cried but after a little bit she brushed herself off and got back in the game. All in all I think that soccer was very good for her and my impression of team sports is very different than it was before soccer. Although we do not officially keep score in under 8 soccer our team ended up winning more games than we lost and playing terrifically. I am not sure if we won our game today or tied but it was a great game. Go Purple Panthers!