Bend it Like Balzuweit...or Something Like That.

This Spring marks the beginning of Sophie's soccer career. Who knows how long it will last, but her enthusiasm indicates that we are in this for the long haul. She is one of 12 kids on a team that is made up of her preschool peers. Each Sunday afternoon for the next several weeks, they meet for a 30 minute practice followed immediately by a 30 minute game.

Sophie has been excited about this from the moment we signed her up, despite the fact that she had no clue about how the game is played, what the purpose of the games is and so on. And one of the best parts for her was that she gets to be #4, her new favorite number since her recent birthday.

So we showed up a couple of weeks ago for the first practice/game, completely unaware of what would come of this new opportunity. Not surprisingly, Sophie and her friends caught on fast, especially since the coach's wife brought a balloon to tie to the goal that they were supposed to head towards. How easy can it get? Also not surprisingly, almost every child on the team was called for a hand ball foul within the first few minutes of the game. They all seemed pretty annoyed when the referee stopped the game because of this, since naturally the easiest way to get the ball out of the way of the opponent is simply to pick it up, right?

This ultimately led to Sophie's decision to be the goalie for the team. She clearly understood that only the goalie has the special privilege of using hands to touch the ball, and she wanted to make that happen. So during half time, Sophie approached Coach Jay to express her desire, and she never turned back. She was so excited to have this responsibility, that the only way she could find to express herself was to jump up and down the entire time she was in the goal...which made everyone a little nervous, but especially me. I got a little anxious when that ball rolled a little too close for comfort in Sophie's zone. I don't know what worried me more...the possibility that she would let it slip into the goal, or whether or not one of her opponents would give it a swift enough kick to knock her out. Either way, I was a little beside myself as I watched from the sidelines.

The first game ended with a 0-0 tie (phew!). Sophie probably still doesn't even know that there's a possible winning and losing team. She simply had too much fun to even care. And when asked what her favorite part of the game was (you might be as naive as me to think it was being the goalie), her response was..."The Snack". That's my girl!