Soccer Fall

Crisp air and blue sky always remind me that Fall and soccer season are in full swing. Screaming fans and the directions from the coach push them on to victory. The team cheers in triumph, congratulates their rival team, and asks the coach, “Where’s my snack?”

Youth soccer is one of my favorite things to watch. I may be a little partial since both of my daughters have played since they were 4 and I have since been forced – loving, of course – into the world of shin-guarded snack-mongers. Moms want their kids to play to have fun. Dads want their kids to play to be the best. Kids want to play to get snacks after the game. Ok, so mine do LOVE playing and never want to be taken out of the game, but the more snacks you bribe them with, the harder they’ll play.

The excited squeals of little girls running around the wide open field chasing each other – for reasons so innocent that they don’t even know what the next few years of hormones will throw at them – are by far some of the best sounds I’ve heard.

Knowing what is ahead for my little girls (coming very quickly for my 9 year-old it seems), I tend to appreciate that they can solely concentrate on one thing and do that one thing with all their passion and no worries of being judged on what they look like or what boys think.

So for the time-being, here are the beautiful thoughts of my little soccer players while they are on the field playing their heart out…

• Where is the ball?
• I want the ball. Don’t care that my teammate has the ball, I want it.
• Get the ball, keep the ball, lose the ball, take the ball back and RUN.
• Get the ball into the goal. SCORE! I rock!
• Is the game over already?
• Where’s my snack?

Innocence – An amazing way to spend a crisp Fall evening.