Team Monkey Joe's

Well we did it, our first foray into the world of team sports.  Sam has completed his first season on a soccer team.  That's right, I am no officially a soccer mom.  And actually, I am Team Mom as well, but that's another discussion.

I signed Sam up through Katy Youth Soccer Club, a huge league that organizes teams all the way up to the teenage bunch.  Sam's U5 division was the youngest, and is a non-competitive 3-on3, no goalie division.  Their fields are tiny and the kids are taller than the goals.  Each team has 10 kids and plays 2 fields simultaneously on Saturdays.

I can honestly say that we saw dramatic improvement over the season.  Honestly, after the first few games I had resigned myself to the fact that Sam wasn't going to be good at soccer.  He was great when he had his own ball, dribbling around, shooting, etc, but as soon as he got onto the field, he lagged the others, didn't get after the ball and showed little interest in the actual game. 

Halfway through the season something clicked.  At his 8:15 game in mid-October the boy scored about 10 goals.  He was in there, he was aggressive, he ran down the field with drive and purpose.  He wanted to score, he wanted control of the ball.

And here is where I show my true colors: I had more fun watching Sam play that day than any previous game.  Maybe Mommy is a bit competitive?

It wasn't just Sam that was getting it, though.  The coach was able to start working on things like passing (a novel concept in the pre-k world) and you could see the boys trying to use team work on the field!

Lest I paint you a picture of some near-pro athletes here, I will also reveal that by the last game: play still continued behind and around the goal (think hockey), parents kicked the ball back onto the field, there were no penalty kicks or throw ins, and very few conceptualized that kicking off was a bad thing (meaning that the other team had just scored).

The game schedule was all over the place and kept us guessing, but it was nice to have a game to look forward to each Saturday.  The boys practiced once a week and I got to know some parents that way.  They group the teams by elementary school, so I met people who live close by, too.  It was a bit comical to see the varying levels of commitment and "enthusiasm" amongst the parents in our league.  Some are of the notion that sports are of end-all, be-all importance, even in preschool, and some have zero commitment at all to the activity they signed up for.  It'll be interesting to see how the dynamics change as Sam gets older - I am told we moved to a sports-obsessed community and I'm already seeing glimpses of it!

Sam really enjoyed himself.  I think he felt quite big being on a team, with a uniform and all.  He also started having more fun with the games once he started scoring goals!  He has told me that he really likes soccer and wants to play again in the spring - since Daddy says he is too young for t-ball, he just might get his wish!

Oh, and the boys and coach cam up with the name Team Monkey Joe's.  Monkey Joe's is an indoor party play place around here - and we're going there for our team party tonight!