For the month of August Mikayla has had soccer practice two nights a week. Her first soccer game of the season (and of her life!) was on August 28th...a SUPER hot day! She is part of our town's soccer league...Sherwood Youth Soccer Club. We jumped all in without really knowing what we were getting ourselves into, but we were pretty confident she was excited and wanted to play because of the positive experience she had last Fall when we signed her up for indoor soccer classes.
It has definitely been a learning experience so far not only for her in learning the rules and skills of the game, but for me as well as I watch her on the sidelines. It's no secret that I am a competitive person and I better start learning early on how to deal with that kind of personality as a spectator. I had to ask my mom how she did it all those years watching me play my various sports and supporting me (win or lose) in the most awesome way! I would LOVE to take after her with that ability as I watch my own children play sports. I'm going to do the best that I can! Already I'm soooooo proud of Mikayla and I don't ever want my competitiveness to put a damper on her love for just playing, doing her best, and having fun!
We are really blessed to have an awesome coach for her first year in soccer! Mikayla LOVES Coach Erica and I can see how much she also respects and listens to her, too. It's a joy to watch your child being one of the ones who is listening to what the coach has to teach her without the distraction of goofiness and being silly with the other kids.
One thing I came to realize as I watched her play is that she is a natural defender versus a go-getter and aggressive player. She was often hesitant to get in there and just kick the ball. She liked to hang back and defend the goal a lot and she actually had quite a few "saves" that day. I think her coach began to encourage her to do that as she saw that natural ability in her. I talked to her coach later after the game and she mentioned that Mikayla is a "Quiet Strength" and I think I really like that. It sums up a lot of who she is naturally in a lot of things. She may not be the one who scores the most goals this season, but she just might be the one who saves the other team from scoring!
Exhausted at the end of the game...it was SO HOT!
This was how Austin stayed cool. Some shade under the arms of our chairs and a Root Beer sno-cone. He was doing just fine! *wink*
Of course our first game we played was against a first grade team, so even though "we don't keep score" it was not really a great match up. Oh well! She had a great time and I honestly don't know what the score was at the end of the game...I promise!
So proud of my girl!
GO DOLPHINS!!
