The Lee Family: First Soccer Game of Spring

It didn't exactly feel like spring out on the soccer field yesterday afternoon at 3:15pm for Sofia's first game of the season. It's still pretty chilly and was a bit windy, but the sun came out just as the game started which really helped. Before the game Sofia was still in her favorite pjs playing with her sister after having a make-up piano lesson and eating ham and cheese sandwiches and apples. We arrived at the field and the girls got warmed up with Coach Jeff and Coach Kevin as the parents socialized. It's great to see all the parents again and we look forward to a fun soccer season. Nearly all the girls returned this year except for Paige, Ella V., and Olivia. Paige had a conflict with soccer, Ella V. and her family are moving and Olivia is now playing select soccer. One of Sofia's classmates, Claire, joined our team and I know her Mom from school functions as well as the Colleyville Garden Club. They will be a great fit. It will be interesting to see what kind of season the girls have without Olivia, who routinely scored the majority of the team's goals. Olivia is not only a very good soccer player but also has a Mom who is very fun and sweet but turns into a crazed soccer mom when Olivia is playing, so the dynamic will change in several different ways. One aspect of having a strong player like Olivia on a team is that the other girls tend to not play as hard since they know Olivia will take the ball and score for them. So, I'm thinking it may be better to have a team without Olivia knowing that Olivia is now on a team that is full of strong players.

The girls played against the Shooting Stars, which includes one of Sofia's friends, Frankie, who recently left their elementary school to go to the Aspire Academy (for gifted kids). The girls were excited to see each other and connected a few times on the field to talk. The game went really well and Aria, Emily and Abby handled the ball mostly but all the girls did a great job and played hard. At one point after halftime, Sofia became the goalie. One thing we love about Coaches Kevin and Jeff is that they believe that each girl should play every position so they are comfortable with the entire game of soccer and shouldn't be pigeonholed into one position all season because they ultimately won't learn what they need to know about the game. That said, I always have a special fear when Sofia puts the orange jersey on and is goalie. Although she's becoming more aggressive, she hasn't been very comfortable stopping the ball with her hands and is a little less sure than she needs to be at times. Before halftime was over, Coach Jeff gave her some advice which must have really worked because Sofia was awesome as the goalie!! One of the players on the Shooting Stars is also named Sofia and is clearly their star player. She took at least four shots on goal while Sofia was goalie and our girl stopped every single shot!!!! She stopped two by grabbing them with her hands and two more by kicking the ball out of the way! It was amazing! She did such a great job and after the game she said she loved playing goalie!

Sofia played both offense and defense in the game and had a few good kicks, especially in her role as defender. The Pink Pirates ended up winning 4-2 and it was a good, fun first game. Throughout the game, Olivia was off with her buddy, Katie who is Abby's older sister. Olivia adores Katie and Katie is just awesome with Olivia. After both teams gave each other high fives, we pulled the girls together for their "official" team photo. Once again, I'm the "team photographer" which I really love to do, although I think I'm a bit rusty. Following the photo, Chloe's mom, Julie passed out cupcakes since it was Chloe's birthday! Of course, both girls gobbled them up (Olivia after dropping her entire first one on the field and having another one). I'd made snicker doodles that afternoon and Sofia ran to the car to share with everyone. It was a really fun first game and we look forward to more fun soccer!

The game begins