Soccer Saturday

We had a blast last Saturday on an all day soccer high. It was a beautiful day, hence we all got sun touched because it wasn't so hot we felt we didn't needed sunscreen.

Caitlyn's team, the Dragon Ladies, started off with a great first game. I have never seen Caitlyn play so well. She ran, she chased and she fought for that ball. She had her first stint as keeper and nothing got by her. I was afraid that she would fall into her old habit of keeping back from the scuffle. I couldn't have been more wrong. She didn't score, but it wasn't for a lack of effort on her part. I am so proud of her. The game was a delight with wonderful sportsmanship on both sides. They played a wonderful team called the Killer Bees and those girls are good! We won 3-2. Parents on boths sides agreed that it was an exciting game and we were all very happy with our girls.

Next game - a game for the FireBalls. Jim decided he wanted to play. And so did Ambrelyn. What! A 4 year old girl on a U6 boy's team? There were NO U5 girls teams from Portales to put her on. Rather than stick her with U6 girls she didn't know (or worse with the U8 team her sisters are on) we stuck her on the Fireballs. Coach Ben had watched her in practice and had no worries. She was a tiger. She got into the flow and would go toe to toe with any of the boys. At one point the other coach called out to the players to get them to stop, "Hey, Boys" and Ambrelyn called back, "No, I'm a girl." Also another player took a deliberate hit at her. She told him off and then told his coach. We were laughing so hard.

But the highlight wasn't Ambrelyn's game(though I am sure Jori would disagree!) It wasn't Wild Bill's 5 goals and amazing save. It wasn't Conner going after the ball like a rat terrier. It was James. Mr. I Am Not Good At Anything. Coach and I decided not to play Will and Jim at the same time. Jim took the field, got aggressive and scored a goal. We were cheering, Jim was beaming! And from the sidelines comes William. Yelling and hugging his brother, so happy that his brother made a goal. It brought me to tears. Will was telling everyone, "that's my brother". Then Jim went on to score ANOTHER goal! It was incredible. Then when my heart was bursting, Conner was upset because "everyone is scoring goals but me!" Jim takes Conner to the center line to get ready, puts his arm around Conner and says, "Don't worry, this time it's your turn." I darned near bawled! The Fireballs won the field!

Then (because this was a marathon soccer day) we had the girls' second game. Once again, Caitlyn played hard. She was able to do some fancy guarding and passing and assisted Haileah into a goal. They worked very well together. The girls were definitly more tired at this point but they stayed strong. Haileah and another young lady bounced off each other and the parents of the other girl went after our coach! The ref had to pull them off. It was so insane! I think it was sour grapes. Despite that being their second game, the Dragon Ladies were victorious again!

Such heroic efforts earned out soccer warriors the ultimate reward...Dairy Queen!