Being a good team player

Even though Lucas has a great time running and dribbling the ball up and down every field but the one his team is practicing on, I've been talking to him all last week about soccer as a team sport (meaning, it's more than me and him) and that he needs to try and play a little bit with his team.

Saturday morning we drove over to the soccer field. Lucas said, "I'm really going to try today with my team mommy." Everything seemed to be pointing toward a successful day on the soccer field. Even after two days of TONS of rain, the skies were clear and blue.

But then we get there and there was only one other kid and his dad on the field. No coaches, no soccer goals, nothing else. We went out there anyway and Lucas and Kevin started kicking around the ball. I checked my phone, there was a message from Noel that included, "You probably know that soccer got canceled today..." I thought, "How am I going to tell Lucas that soccer is canceled after I had hyped it up with him all week?"

I looked out on the field. Lucas was having a great time kicking the ball around, he and he and Kevin were playing a little with the other kid/dad. I see another mom with her son, outfitted in the team uniform walking up the path.

Within about 10 minutes there were about 10 kids, obviously who had lame parents like me, who didn't bother to call the hotline to see if soccer was on or off because of the field conditions. At this point, even though soccer was officially canceled, there were enough kids and parents out there to have some fun.

One of the dads took the reins and acted as the coach. He had the kids running up and down the field and doing other various soccer drills. They dribbled, shot goals, tried to get the ball away from each other, and did all the other things that they do during soccer practice, and Lucas was right in the thick of things having a blast.

I was so relieved! It was great to see him out there having so much fun, playing soccer as a team sport.

Later that night as I was tucking Lucas into bed, we relived the soccer experience. He said he had so much fun, but then asked why the real coaches weren't there. I told him that maybe they thought no one would go because of the muddy field. Then he said, "You know when I grow up I'm going to be a soccer coach so I can help kids learn to play soccer, even if it's muddy."