I Get A Kick Out Of You

The nine and seven year olds both had their first soccer games of the spring season this morning. The younger gel is still at a level where they don't keep score, but the elder gel's team, the Creepy Green Leprechauns, battled to a 2-2 tie against the Grey Dolphins.

The Llama-ette has had some difficulty grasping the difference between offensive and defensive strategy. While she does pretty well with the latter, she's often hung back and seemed a bit puzzled with the former. So this morning, before the game, Old Dad had a talk with her about being conscious of what she was about when playing the various positions (Coach rotates everybody around during the games.) I also threw in some standard wisdom about team spirit and not giving up.

I'm proud to say that the gel played better offense than I've seen before - she really hustled, stayed ahead of the ball and actually got a couple of solid shots on goal. Nice to see that I have her ear, at least in part.

The Leprechauns went 6-0-2 last fall, capping the season by winning a hard-fought mini-tournament against two other undefeated teams. Let's hope they do as well this spring. I don't pretend the Llama-ette is anywhere near the best player on the team, because she isn't. But I'm hoping the quality of some of the other girls' play will rub off on her, perhaps with some gentle nudgings from self as well.