Saturday Soccer
Saturday, May 6th, 2006Two games today, so a fun, busy morning for us all.
First up, the second graders won their game 4-1. Today was Science Olympiad day at a local middle school, so some teams were missing players. One was clearly our opponent, starting the game with 6 players (we play 7 v 7), but they had two more girls show up just after the game started.
They had one really tough, quick girl, but because she barely got a rest, the gas ran out early in the second half.
The game started at 9:30 and it was on the cold side, even with the sun, and my oldest isn’t much of a morning person. It showed, as she pained herself through a busy and quick first quarter. She came off the field telling me “my lungs are burning.” She would prefer that all soccer games began at 2 p.m., allowing plenty of time for breakfast, Saturday morning cartoons, and for her legs to wake up.
This was our first win, evening the record at 1-1-1.
The kindergarten team played right after the second graders, and they also won, 5-0.
Our youngest daughter punched in the last goal, followed by the horribly cute pumping of the fists and big smiles for the parents on the sidelines.
My wife and I try to reinforce the ideas of winning and losing with grace, so that the team doesn’t gloat when we’re doing really well nor does the team sulk when we lose.
‘m not the type of parent who believes in “there are no losers, only winners” because that’s not realistic. Kids have to learn to deal with not always being on top, the best, etc. so they can cope with similar feelings and situations when they’re adults.
So I was torn, a bit, when I heard the opposing coach chastise our girls with a “quit celebrating and line-up, we’re trying to play a game…” after the last goal was scored.
I understood his frustration; he wanted his team to do well, but by no stretch of the imagination were our girls being rude. They’re 5 and 6 years old and they were excited to score and do well as a team.
The jackass in me wanted to mention something after the game, about what he said, but I probably would have let something slip along the lines of “It must suck to get it handed to you like that…”
I kept my mouth shut, we all shook hands, and enjoyed post-game snack.
