Soccer 2009

Gotta love that grin!

We were all excited for soccer to get underway this year. Snowflake makes it pretty easy, and assigns each team a color. They get shirts to go along with their color, and the color becomes the team name as well. As you can see, Landon is on the dark blue team. The kids on his team decided they needed a cool name though, and Landon came up with 'The Strikers". They do not answer to the "Dark Blue Team", but prefer 'The Strikers".
Anyway, Landon was not what you would call "soccer player material" last year. He only kicked the ball once-the wrong way, and he was the kid you would see laying in the middle of the field. So our expectations weren't high this time around, and we told him to just have a good time. We were pleasantly surprised to find that somewhere between last season and this one, he figured out the concept of the game, and has been playing like a champ so far! He keeps up with the ball, and kicks it the right way. He has gotten pretty close to making a goal several times, and has not laid down on the field once. Major improvement!!
After his first game, Will and I were showering praises. He told us that he "just keeped trying and trying and trying, and pushing and pushing and pushing" until he did a good job. What this kid lacks is athletic ability, he makes up for in self esteem!
We are so proud of Landon and all of his accomplishments. Hooray for soccer!!

Being a spectator is hard work!