Soccer with AYSO

For the first time ever, we signed our kids up for organized sports.  Natalie had been begging to play soccer, so we decided to go ahead.  We figured Kelton was old enough, and he wanted to play too, so we signed both kids up.  But then, when we went to buy some equipment for them, Damon was very sad to find out that he wasn't going to be playing.  He was so sad, which made us feel bad, so we signed him up too. I will tell you right now that having three kids in soccer was a bit crazy. 

 

The season ran from August to November.  Kelton broke his arm right before the season started, so he didn't get to play for the first five weeks or so.  He wasn't even allowed to practice.  He was so happy when he got his cast off and was actually able to play!  His friend Noah Garcia, who is in our ward, was on his team.

Damon was in the Jamboree league, which is for four year olds.  They aren't actually put on a team.  What they do is take all of the kids and do four 10-15 minute rotations of different  skills/drills and then they divide the kids up onto several small fields and they play a 30 minute, 3 on 3 game.  In hindsight, if I would have know how this worked, I would have made Damon wait one more year until he was old enough to actually be put on a team.  Because there are no coaches in this division, the parents are the one who have to help their child with all the drills and the games.  This was difficult for me because Nate wasn't off work and I had Arie.  But Damon loved it and had a lot of fun.  This picture below was taken during a game.  Yes, I said during.  I will admit, Damon was probably the instigator.  The kids thought hiding in the goal was more fun than actually playing.  We had to keep chasing them out. 

 Here's Damon at the end of his season with his trophy.

Kelton's team-- the Sharks.

Natalie's team-- the Pink Crushers

During the soccer season, we had soccer stuff on four days a week.  Natalie had practice on Monday and Wednesday nights.  (We had to move Family Home Evening to Tuesdays.)  Kelton had practice on Wednesday nights also, but of course, at a different field that was ten minutes away from Natalie's.  Wednesday night was also Activity Days for Natalie, mutual for me, and bishopric stuff for Nate.  Wednesdays were interesting to say the least.  Then Damon had his practice/game on Friday night.  Natalie's games were either right after Damon's or an hour after.  Kelton's games were Saturday morning.  The kids were very sad to see the end of soccer season.  However, the parents didn't share their sentiment.  We were pretty glad to have our evenings and Saturday mornings back.  But we are glad the kids had so much fun.