A Weekend of Fun!
While softball posts have been the bread and butter of my account lately, this past weekend I got to partake in some of the other great youth sports that are out there. It started off at 11 AM on Saturday morning when we went to watch my niece play soccer.
It's one of those youth leagues where they are still learning to play the game. They don't even have officials, the two coaches just team up together and make the calls on the field. Thankfully, you hardly ever hear the whistle blown for off-sides.
As much as I don't really care for soccer, it's always fun to watch them at this age.
They try to implement things like offense and defense, but really it's just a bunch of screaming kids chasing the ball around the field and kicking it towards the goal.
My niece actually scored at least three or four goals for the team all by herself.
Not that they keep score....
But I do! :)
She did fantastic and she has so much energy. I love seeing her out on the field and smiling. I think one of my favorite things about youth soccer is how the kids always stop before they get ready to kick the ball. Then there is the big wind up with their leg while the prepare to kick it.
It never fails, in the time they take to stop and do their kick "wind up", some other kid always comes along and kicks the ball first leaving them hanging. If you have been to a youth soccer game you likely know what I am talking about!
It was a beautiful morning watching her play soccer. As you can see, the sun was out and there was just a slight breeze that made us feel quite comfortable in our jeans and sweatshirts. What you can't see in the photo is that there were about twenty other games taking place all around this one on different fields.
Obviously, the fields aren't full size, but they do have a couple of full size "pitches" for the older kids. Normally, my nephews would have also been playing this morning, but they have moved on from soccer and set their sights on other sports.
As soon as my nieces game wrapped up, we needed to drive about ten minutes to another small town where my nephews were playing flag football.
They had about nine to twelve fields set up next to the football field at one of the High Schools in the area. Teams would basically play in one direction, sort of like half court basketball.
If the team that had possession of the ball didn't score, it was handed over to the other team who would then start from the same location as the other team and work their way across the field right to left.
We got lucky and both of my nephews were playing at the same time on two fields that were right by each other. That meant we just had to stand there and turn 180 degrees at a time to watch each of them play. When the down was finished on one side, we rotated to the other and watched them play a down.
My youngest nephew had trouble staying on his feet, but he got to play both defense and offense. Actually he got to be the quarterback for some of the plays, so that was really cool to watch him. His team ended up losing, but he did a really great job.
My other nephew also got to play quarterback and he did a good job too. I was quite impressed with how tight of a spiral he can through. I don't think even today I could throw that tight of a spiral with a football.
His team ended up winning by the way.
We got word this weekend that both of the boys are going to start playing baseball in a couple of weeks. I don't think either of them have ever played before, but I love the fact that they are willing to get out and try new things.
This will make soccer, basketball, football, and baseball all the sports the boys have tried so far. I have a feeling we will be heading down at least one weekend or weeknight this summer to watch them play.
It was pretty great as far as Saturday mornings go. The fact that they didn't start until 11 meant that we got to sleep in too, so I was really happy about that!
I can't imagine having three kids and needing them all to be at different places at different times. That's why I just have our dog Jovi and I pretty much always know where she is!
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The kids surely had a great time at their soccer game. What a great weekend experience for them and for the audience as well.😊
Yeah, it was a great time and good weather! It was nice not having to watch the soccer game from inside our warm car. I've had to do that before!
it's always nice to see the little ones playing some sport, it's also a very good activity for them. soccer has always been something I like to practice from time to time, good luck to your niece, you can tell she will do very well in sports!
Yeah, she has a ton of energy and two brothers that keep her on her toes! She is going to be a scrapper for sure!