Soccer Saturdays

Brendan is in yellow and Jason is in blue

Saturday, October 29, 2011

I have managed to survive my first season back as a soccer mom. The boys just completed seven weeks of a soccer league sponsored by Peoples Church, a large church on the north side of the city. Although Brendan played AYSO in Pasadena when he was five, this was the boys’ first time really being on a team that had practices and weekly games. We knew Brendan and Jason had played countless hours of soccer in Zambia and even went to see some of their school games at Lechwe, but that didn’t prepare us for what strong players they have become. In Jason’s first game, he scored within the first ten seconds. He zipped around all the players, his own and the opponents, and had scored a triple hat trick by halftime (that’s nine goals!). The coach finally put him as goalkeeper because it was almost embarrassing! Brendan led his team as a solid midfielder who scored on offense and made sure to come back for defense. He had a corner kick that curved in just like Beckham, and launched it from midfield when he saw the goalie had come out of his box, scoring one goal that way. He also made several nice crosses to a petite girl on his team who could finish it off. It was thrilling to watch both boys in action and really excel.

As the season progressed, coaches and parents on opposing teams complained to the league commissioner about Jason being too good and despite being only eight years old, saying that he should play with the ten and eleven year olds. While feeling badly for the other teams, we also wanted to give Jason and Brendan the chance to play in separate leagues and in their own age groups. So we encouraged Jason to work hard at passing to his teammates who steadily improved over the season. He also challenged himself to score from outside the “D” (which he did several times). He also scored on a corner kick, free kicks from quite a ways out, and a few penalties. We tried to prohibit him from scoring once he reached a certain number, say six goals or so. Peter was videotaping Jason’s game one Saturday and Jason couldn’t resist another easy goal and now you can hear me on tape, his faithful and encouraging fan, yell, “Pass it, Jason, don’t shoot, NO, NO, DON’T SCORE . . . DARN!” Seriously, I did cheer him on for his many other goals but I suffered from winner’s guilt, what can I say?

The boys were fortunate to have a variety of other spectators at their games throughout the season, and ones who didn’t groan when he scored yet again (like his mother). Grandparents, cousins along with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Rhonda, our friends Carmen and Clark who came to visit for a week, and even Jason’s third grade teacher, Mr. Noakes. Needless to say, it was even harder to limit Jason in front of these special people. When his teacher was watching, he popped up the ball, slid like Superman on the ground, and headed the ball into the goal. Crazy kid. But very talented, you gotta give him that. Brendan was less showy but really the one who carried his team. He has an amazing ability to anticipate where the ball is going, and to make sure he is there with his good ball control to take it away and either get the assist or score himself.

So it was a fun season and everyone got trophies for participating and now we have our Saturdays back. But I’m guessing there will be much more soccer in my future . . .