Rosters are Almost Here

I can't wait for the rosters to come out. It's like being a kid at Christmas. I don't know why I anticipate it so much. It's not like we're going to get Ronaldo assigned to our team. I guess it's just my general optimistic attitude that the new girls are going to make things even more fun.

I dug up the picture at the top of this article from many years ago. Cassie was a pre-pre-schooler. I mean, kindergarten wasn't even on the horizon. If her next season would be her U5 season, I guess this season would have been U4. We got on the team because she had a friend from her dance class playing and I thought it would be a good introduction for her. She was probably too little. Particularly since the team was a mix of 4, 5, and 6 year olds. I was a rookie soccer parent and had no idea what I was getting into. She was tiny, but she hung in there. If you look at the picture closely, she's wearing a skort instead of shorts. All the parents on the team thought she looked so cute. She didn't actually do much on the field, but all the team knew her name. Little did we know it was the start of something bigger. We were just trying to get her to playd, but she refused to wear shorts. She wanted a girl's soccer uniform, not one for boys. Despite the too big jersey, she was ok with everything if she could just wear a skort. The skort was the thing.

While I'm on the topic, as a parent, I observed this team's practice and noticed how much time the kids spent standing around in lines waiting to do a drill. I didn't have to read a book to know there had to be a better way. When we started the Superstars in our home town at U5, I didn't make that mistake; instead, I made many others, but that's another story. However, I did steal one good idea from this coach. At the end of practice, they'd play a game called "Chase the Rabbit". One of the older siblings would be the rabbit and the kids chased him all over the place. I changed it up a bit and made one girl the rabbit. Which ever teammate would catch her became the next rabbit. I kept rotating the rabbit until all the girls had been the rabbit. They loved it and it used up their last bit of energy right at the end of practice. I highly recommend it.

I've got more stories from the pre-K and Kindergarten years, but those will have to wait.

-Bill