True, I do not fit many of the stereotypes, but in the most literal sense of the phrase...it's me.
Norah just finished her first season of soccer at the Y. I coached, along with the dad (Steven) of one of her friends in the neighborhood. Our team was Salt Lake, and here they are (except one) with their medals after our last game.
Our cheer went like this:
"Up, down, turn around (arms up) goooooooo Salt Lake!"
We quickly got into a rhythm for practices and I was actually impressed with some of the things 3-year olds could do. But it was also obvious that we were working with 3-year olds. During one huddle at the end of practice Steven asked the kids what they learned that day. One little girl launched into our team cheer (which was, in fact, something we practiced, but not the intended answer). We all joined in, of course.
When the question was asked again and we started reviewing what we had taught them, another little girl started singing her ABCs. Her dad sort of tried to get her to "listen to her coaches," but by then another little boy had already joined in. The parents sort of looked at each other like, "Well, what the heck?" and decided to join in as well. What else could we do?
I would say Norah was pretty into soccer.
She never expressed disappointment that it was soccer night. She never fought going. In fact, she generally cheered when I told her we were going to soccer...but she wasn't exactly the star.
Because 3-year olds tend to cluster around the ball they have to have some speed and/or be somewhat aggressive in order to get a foot on the ball. Norah often followed the pack around, but was neither quick enough nor aggressive enough to get in on the action very frequently. But she occasionally got pretty into it and took off dribbling the ball. One game she even scored a goal.
And believe me - there are "stars" at age 3. We had one kid on our team who moved his body from left to right to fake out the goalie before taking a shot. He's also the one who took the ball up within the first 10 seconds of our first game and scored a goal.
He's the one with the ball out in front of everyone in this picture. (Note Norah's distance from the ball.)
The soccer season wasn't without tears for Norah, as well as most others on our team at one point or another. I've decided that there are a lot of tears shed every Saturday morning across the nation at 3-year old Y soccer games.
One game early in the season Norah and two other little girls were all struggling. At one point I suggested they hold hands on the field, and it totally worked. The three of them ran all over together, giggling, while generally chasing the pack. One of them occasionally got a foot on the ball, but the main thing was that it made soccer fun for them.
And of course the half time snack was the best part of all:
Our team, including the parents, seemed to gel pretty well, and many of them asked at the end of the season whether Steven and I plan to coach in the fall again. We all agreed to keep in touch when it came time to sign up and try to get on the same team. If I decide to coach again it would be great if that happened because it got more and more fun as the kids warmed up to me and I felt like I could genuinely help them have fun and learn about soccer at the same time.
I've thought about the possibility of my kids playing soccer for a long time (well before actually having kids), and it was really fun to officially become a soccer mom.
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