Friday, August 22, 2008

Soccer Time

Last Saturday Dallin had his very first soccer game. That morning as we were getting ready, Dallin was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. He couldn't wait to get up there and get started. As mentioned before, Dallin is playing soccer at the YMCA, so the game started out with a prayer. It was kind of different because they asked everyone to come out onto the field, stand in a circle, and hold hands while the prayer was being offered. I liked though, I think it really added a feeling of camaraderie and sportsmanship to the event. Dallin was picked to be one of the starters. That doesn't really mean anything because at some point everyone on the team will get to be a starter and everyone on the team gets to play about the same amount of time. The game got started and at first I don't think that Dallin knew what to do. But after a moment, he started running after the ball right along with everyone else. The first couple of times that he got to the ball and started kicking it, he kicked it the wrong way down the field. Luckily his own team has a pretty good goalie and he was able to keep Dallin from scoring a goal for the other team. He did start to get better at it as the game went on. One time he kicked the ball all the way down the field and was ready to score a goal when the other team kicked it in to their own goal for him. I guess he can be credited with an assist though! The one thing that he never really did get the hang of was the boundary lines and the whistle. The coaches/referees would blow the whistle when the ball got kicked out, but Dallin and quite a few of the other kids would just keep on kicking it and playing. He enjoyed himself so very much. He had a big grin on his face the whole time that he was playing. He was also really happy that Nana, Grandpa, Stacy and Jon could be there to watch him play too. He kept looking over at all of us to make sure that we were watching him and would wave at us every now and then. Even though I think that Dallin's team was technically the winner, no mention was made at the end of the game about who won and who lost. Every child was treated as a champion and took a victory lap through the tunnel of people cheering them on. We all had a great time and we can't wait for his next game!

Click to play 1st Soccer Game

1 comment:

LESLIE said...

Zach and I are so excited for the athletic part of parenting! I bet this was the best entertainment! Thanks for sharing!