Spring Sports Begin!

For Amanda, it was basketball, now it's track. For Tyler it was football, now its baseball. And for Tanner, a.k.a. Little Calvin, swimming season is done, now its time for soccer. From the looks of things, spring sports are here!

It's always fun to watch the kids branch out, find new things that interest them, and explore new frontiers. Today we began what could be a whole new frontier, as I have seen this sport take over family lives for years. Today was Tanner's first day of soccer practice.

I remember playing soccer as a child. I smile with some of the memories from my old team. I remember shortly before my first season began, my dad took me to the school soccer field, basketball in hand. Yes... basketball. I specifically remember questioning the whole basketball thing and my dad saying something to the effect of "we don't need to spend money on a whole new ball when we have a perfectly good one right here!" And so I began to learn basketball, er.. soccer.

And I began to learn.. in JEANS. Now, this is one thing I must ask my parents.. Ok, so I picked out my Indian pants by myself, but I refuse to believe that I CHOSE to wear jeans for sports. I have pictures of me as a child playing soccer. The whole team is in typical soccer garb: shorts, team shirt, etc. and there I am wearing jeans. Everytime. Upon finding my old team photos a few weeks back, this was the first question out of my wife's mouth: "Why are you wearing jeans?!"I have no clue. But I remember wearing them, to every game.


Soccer also provided me another unexpected experience... one of my first major crushes: Ashley Gottsman.. the little first grade beauty I had my eye on (Don't freak out! I was a second grader!!) Her mom was our team's coach. And so with Ashley, I beagn to learn the high art of wooing women. Was I successful? Well, considering I never really talked to her at practice.. (I was a full back, she was a forward.. no real time to chat) I never really talked to her after practice, and the few times our familys were swimming at the pool together and I never got up the guts to say diddly squat.. I can say that in the world of reality, nothing ever happened. But in my head, it was the wind blowing Gone with the Wind scene, strings playing.. love blooming. Jeans and all.

Sooooo, do I expect my own son to find his first love on our city park playing fields? Nope. Am I teaching him on the side with a basketball? No. BUT, like many parents with kids on the team, am I buying the kid soccer shoes, pads, specialized shorts, etc for 4 tuesday practices? Sorry. Like my parents when I was young.. he's wearing what he's got. Maybe when he is older he can create his own blog and vent about his parents making him wear blue sweats rathing than ponying up the dough for the designer sports duds. It's just the way it works.

I have posted a short video of soccer practice: Day 1. You can watch it by clicking here. Note: This is a Quicktime video file. If you do not have Quicktime already, click here to download it.