First Soccer Practice

The first week of school, we received a flyer about the local soccer rec league and decided to sigh Luke up for his first team sport experience. Tonight was his first practice, and it went very well! We had all of his equipment, including a size 3 ball and shin guards. Quick, what do *you* see when you look at his shin guards?



I see a hockey mask for a duck, and so does DH! When he's wearing them, I don't have that problem, but when they are just sitting on the table, it's all I can see. Anyway, I picked him up from daycare, got him fed, and got him changed. Here he is, ready to go (sans shin guards for the ride in the car). I can't get over how *tall* he looks.



It took us a few minutes to find our coach, but once we did, things got going pretty quickly. We started with four out of six team members, and the coach was very good with all of the kids.



As you can see, he was very excited to actually get the ball into the goal (it only took three attempts, LOL). He actually did a lot better at not kicking the ball all over the place than I expected for his very first time playing. Much more control than I thought he'd have.



The league is co-ed, but Luke's team is all boys for some reason. Even the coach was surprised. There were several other teams practicing, and they all seemed to have at least one girl, usually two. (DH and I suspect that they tried to have two girls to a team when possible.) Doesn't bother me, just an observation.



A fifth teammate showed up 10 minutes or so into practice. The sixth teammate won't be there until next week (he is good friends with the coach's son). Here is a good shot for scale. Luke is second oldest (tall kid on far left is 2 months older). Everyone else has a 2005 birthday (Feb-May). Luke was the only one who ran flat out for the whole hour. He's going to be exhausted tomorrow (for picture day, of course).



All in all, a very good practice. They're all very good and well behaved kids (unlike a few on some of the other teams). I think it is going to be a fun season! Their first game is Saturday. More photos to come!

Currently feeling: ready(?) for our first game!