Jessica's First Soccer Game of Fall 2010

Soccer season began a couple weeks ago with just practices.  It is odd having only one child playing, but it is certainly her sport.  Last week, after the 5th time of asking how long till practice and getting more and more exasperated answers, Jess made a little sign for herself.  It said "5:00" and was completely colored in with markers.  She taped it to her school shelf.  During the next few hours I often caught her looking at it, then at the microwave and sighing.

Her first game was Saturday.  She was barely on time and missed the warm-ups.  That was my fault for not leaving before 6 for my run.  What I didn't realize before hand, was who Jess was playing--Matt's friend Marlin's team (my race buddy Lorna's husband).  He has three of his boys on his team and there are also 5 other kids from the ward on their team and the assistant coach too.  So we knew almost everyone on the sidelines and I sat right where the two teams's spectators divided.  It was funny cheering at opposite times of my friends on my left.  And there was plenty to cheer about.  It is fun to watch Jess play soccer.  I know this is going to sound a little like a bragging mom, but she is good.

She must have Matt's ball sense genetically encoded because she plays smart as well as hard and fast.  She doesn't just swarm the ball which is common at this age.  She would run up field to be ready for throw ins or goal kicks.  She would move in behind the goalie when the goalie was to one side of the box to provide back-up.  (I saw that one and thought, wow.)  If one of her teammates had the ball, she would stay back and be watchful instead of running up to the ball.  We have never worked on anything at home and strategy is not something they go over in practice where the aim is to remember which goal you are shooting at and to keep both feet down on throw ins.  Yes, she is at the top end of her age bracket which gives her an advantage of having more seasons under her belt than the younger kids, but having watched her older siblings go through soccer too, we can tell she has a little something special.  She had two goals, an assist and a couple near misses.  It was nice to hear the other families we knew on the opposing team demand to know why Jess wasn't on the church team. :-)  But we love being on Coach Jared's team.  We share soccer, homeschool, running and now, fantasy football with their family.

Look at that concentration.

Jess going up against Jaylyn.

She's going for the goal.

Try to keep it in!

Going for another goal. 

Too many pictures?  She loves looking at them post game.  

She got home and wanted a shower.  It was a hot day, and she ran so hard she felt a little nauseous post-game.  She couldn't even eat her snack--her favorites Sunny-D and fruit roll-ups.  This weekend should be cooler.  Hooray!