Logan's First Soccer Game

After watching his sister get dropped off and picked up from many activities and sports over the years, the time finally arrived for Logan to begin his first team this sport this fall!  I decided that in addition to putting him in swim lessons his entire PreK year, that he should try out the three basic team sports of soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and t-ball in the spring.  So I signed him up for indoor, rec soccer this past August and we waited for his first practice to begin.  Logan was very excited to start the season and was even more excited to go to the store and pick out his first pair of soccer shin guards and socks.  As a result, one could imagine my surprise when we showed up to his first practice three weeks ago to find a very timid, hesitant Logan who didn't even want to go out onto the court to kick a ball with the other kids before it started.  In fact, it took me many minutes of giving Logan a pep talk and bribing him with a treat afterwards before he even agreed to go out on the court and join the coach after he had officially started practice.  Oh dear.  I have learned over the years that very few things are easy with Logan the first time around.  He doesn't like change and he doesn't like unfamiliar surroundings.  He hung in there through the hour long practice, but once they switched to scrimmaging at the end, I could quickly see that Logan was the most timid of the bunch.  While all the other children were madly chasing after the ball and trying to kick it, Logan just slowly ran at the back of the group with no intention of getting to the front and kicking the ball.
Three weeks later, it is still pretty much the same thing.  We headed off to his first game today and Ron was very surprised to see how Logan played (since he had never attended one of his practices).  Ron and I found ourselves just hoping to see Logan's foot touch the ball one time during his 40-minute game....which luckily happened a couple of times.  This has come as a bit of a shock to us as Logan is such a wild and aggressive child at home, but there is something about putting him in a team sport environment that brings out the timid side.  Oh well.  Maybe team sports won't be his thing and individual sports will.  Or maybe he just needs to get a little older and more mature and then his confidence and competitiveness will grow.  Regardless, I am proud of my little guy for sticking it out through a long, 40-minute game and for running as much as he did behind the pack.  I know that it wasn't the funnest thing for him to do, but he never gave up.  We shall see how the rest of the season pans out...

Logan drinking his water from the sidelines before the game began.

Logan kicking the ball!

The "I'm-so-tired-of-this" face that Logan gave us quite a few times from the court.

My cute boy posing for the camera.

Logan trying to stop the ball as it came towards him.

Running after it!

One of Logan's teammate stopping the ball before a goal was scored by the other team.

Logan's assistant coach reminding him which way he should kick the ball during a break in the game.

Although this picture turned out blurry, I had to include it anyways because it is the only shot I got of the ball after Logan actually kicked it!  So exciting!

Logan and a pack of kids chasing down the ball.

And another.

A close-up of my cutie when the pack of kids ran right up to the parents while chasing the ball out of bounds.

Logan watching on as the other team kicks the ball.

A great picture of Logan running up to the ball.

Logan running behind the pack.

Logan got a bit bored by the end of the game and pulled up his shorts really high.  I thought it was super funny, but Ron did not.  Here is a classic picture I got of my boy rocking his high waisted shorts!

Game over!  Logan and his teammates giving high fives to the other team.

Good job, Logan!