About the time that school started it was also time for Ben’s first soccer season ever to begin. He had played soccer in Durham but just practices and never on a team with games. Turns out most of the soccer teams in St. Louis are formed through the local Catholic schools. I’m glad I had my neighbor Amy tell me that because I never would have figured out that on my own.
So, in mid-August when the weather was still scorchingly hot, Benny went to his first practice with the Holy Infant Green Monsters. About half of the team was from neighboring elementary school Ridge Meadows and half was from Fairway. So, he got the chance to meet lots of nice new boys his age including some that went to his school.
At first, Ben had a little trouble participating in the practices. He was fine with the drills and even the scrimmages but when it came time to play a fun little game to learn the skills, one with a winner and loser where you could actually get “out”, Ben refused to play. It took until about halfway through the season and many, many bribes with Skittles, but eventually he realized that nothing terrible would happen if you actually lost or got out in a game. Hey, it’s progress.
A couple of weeks into their practices it was time for their first actual game. In fact, in one weekend they had three games to start off the season. It was a tournament against the other Holy Infant teams their age.
Turns out Ben prefers to be a defender in soccer. He likes to stand back and wait for the ball to come to him and then kick it away. And when I say he likes to wait for the ball to come to him, I mean, the ball had to come RIGHT to him. If it was just a few feet away he would dutifully remember his coaches’ advice that he was supposed to stay in his position, and he would let the ball go by. Then, occasionally, he would be chatting with the other defender or just watching the grass and lose his focus a little.
Even though he had a bit of trouble getting to the ball early in the season, he got the hang of it about midway through the season. Earlier he had been commenting to me that he wanted to be goalie, and every kid was supposed to have the opportunity to play goalie at some point in the season. This made me really nervous because I saw how distracted he could be when he was just defending. However, the day came when his coach put him in at goalie. I was nervous for him the whole time, but turns out being in goalie kept him really focused. He actually stopped the ball well several times and really enjoyed himself. The rest of the season he seemed to have a little more of a fire lit under him. He would actually pay attention and run after the ball. I think he also needed a few games to just figure out what he was supposed to be doing out there, and by the end of the year he had really caught on.
Ben really enjoyed playing soccer with the Green Monsters, and was equally excited to start on basketball season later in the fall. Yay, Benny!
(Benny takes a big kick.)
(getting in there)
(Benny relaxing and taking a little break during the game.)
(The Holy Infant Green Monsters, yay!
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