Let the games begin!

It's started. The dreaded soccer season. See, I love soccer. I didn't play it growing up, except for a few times with some friends at the park near out house. Except I remember playing with a tennis ball. And I DO remember scoring a lot with that little ball. My sophomore year of high school we had moved to Germany. I had been on the cross-country team which rolled over to the basketball season. When that was over, I planned to be on the track team, but just got curious about soccer. I figured I couldn't play. I heard that soccer players sprint 9 miles in games and I knew I couldn't SPRINT 9 miles. Then I saw a chubby girl with her cleats, heading to try outs. I thought, "ummm, I KNOW I can run more than she can!" So that day I joined a group of girls trying out for the soccer team. I scored that day, too. The Varsity coach wanted me on her team. I told the JV coach, "I know nothing about soccer. I don't want to play Varsity." That was a good move on my part. I played every game, every minute, on the JV team that season. At the end of the season I joined the Varsity team for the end of the year tournament. I sat bench the whole time. Thank goodness I didn't play Varsity. I'd have had ZERO time on the field during games. Anyway, thus began my passion for soccer. I had wished I had the "experience" that some of my team mates had, I felt I'd have been a much better player had I begun as a 6 year old whether than a 16 year old, but it was all good. I ate the sport up and finally, IT spit me out in 1997 when I obliterated my knee during a pick up game at BYU. I figure I'll just be back on the soccer fields come the millenium. ANYWAYS! My kids LOVE the sport. I'm an official "soccer mom." Whatever that really means. All my kids started in preschool and have played ever since. They're not super human good (OK, the boys aren't. They hold their own, but don't stand out.) My girls on the other hand. They're awesome. Anyways, this is a lot of bragging writing for what I really meant by this post. Just saying that although the season is crazy with 5 kids playing on 5 different teams, I'm up for the job. Because I love what they're doing. I had an interesting conversation today with a friend of mine. We were talking about "pushing" our kids in sports. She said that it seemed to her, EVERYONE was pushing their kids on the fields. Signing them up for expensive camps, putting them in tournaments cities away, emptying their wallets to do so. And these kids weren't even 10! She said she didn't agree with it, but maybe that was the wrong attitude? That maybe she needed to push her kids, expose them to these "opportunities" to make them better players. I told her I agreed with her, end of story. In Brazil you see kids of all ages, working MAGIC with "soccer balls" aka oranges, balled up socks, etc. There were no camps for these kids. Just a ball and a bunch of spirit. And believe you me: put a team of 10 year old soccer playing Brazillian kids against a similar team of Americans and hate to say it, I'm putting ALL my money on the Brazillian kids. Heck, put these same kids in the field with a high school team from America. I'm still betting on the Brazillians!! I guess the point I'm making here is I feel the best way to instill a sport or the love of sports into our children is to simply let the children enjoy it. Toss them a ball and let them play. Resist the urge to live our failed Olympian lives through them. Do we care so much what people think of us as parents that we put the pressure on our children so that our children, not us, can show our friends what great people we are? Do we really just want the "Joneses" to see how amazing we are as our children sail across soccer fields and over basketball courts? I mean cuz really, it's OUR DNA that's exposed when they do the amazing things they do. And then come high school, they're burnt out and want nothing to do with the sport. I may be sounding super hypocritical here because our family has pure and utter chaos thanks to sports. Soccer, swim team, basketball. Yes, we do a lot of sports. I think it's so important. Sports does things for kids that nothing else can. On all levels. Cardio, self-esteem, goal orientation, dealing with losing, being gracious with wins. Team work, sense of belonging. Gosh, the list goes on forever. Anyways. Our season has started. It's crazy. But it's a good crazy. I can tell because so far, at the end of every practice or game, my kid comes off the field in a contented mood. If that ever changes, I'll have to do some re-evaluating.