Petite Pele or Zachary starts soccer!

Much much anticipated event in our family:  Zachary starts soccer season.  He's on a 4 & 5yr old team at the YMCA that plays indoor (whew!).  We thought indoor would be best for his first foray into the sport.  I registered him weeks and weeks ago, specifically for the Red team.  We have all been excited about this!  The format is 30 minutes of "skills", then 30 minutes of a game; red team vs. yellow team.  It is so so cute I could just die!  I have easily gotten my $57 worth of entertainment in the first few games!  Zachary LOVES it.  He is a goal-scoring maniac.  That is all he is interested in.  He has about 9-10 kids on his team, but only 3-4 of them are really interested in playing with some seriousness.  One kid stopped in the middle of the game to go to the sidelines and do some coloring.  One boy started climbing the bleachers.  Two boys were having some sort of sitting dance contest, and Zach's friend Maguire would much rather spend her time hanging on the coaches or running over to try and tickle Wyatt. :)  Zachary and 2 boys are pretty serious about getting the ball and wanting to score.  One girl is very serious about the game, but only wants to be goalie.  There is no goalie in 4 & 5yr old team. :)  She spends a lot of time hovering around, and staying inside the goal.  So funny.  All Zach seems to care about is scoring goals...not having fun, being a good sport, etc, just scoring goals.  As of this post, his team has scored 13 goals total and 11 of those were Zach's.  He scored 2 goals in the first game, 3 in the second, 4 in the third, and 2 in the 4th.  We are worried that he might have a massive coronary if he has a game where he scores no goals.  Sigh.  We love it all though.  It is so funny - the amoeba ball strategy which ends up with a massive pile-up any time a kid falls down.  Wyatt enjoys being there and watching too.  He especially loves that during half-time and water breaks, he can go onto the "field" (basketball court) and score some goals.  Everyone is always so impressed with Wyatt's ball control.  He's said to Art "find me a team, and I will play", and he doesn't care what sport - soccer, basketball (preferred), or football.  He's ready.  Too bad there are no teams for 2 yr olds!

It has been very difficult to get decent photos and videos, but here's what I've got so far.  I'll try at future games too.

Red team practicing - Zach in the middle

Zachary w/ blue & white ball

dribbling the ball during a drill

The other nice thing is that there are 2 kids from Zach's preschool class on his team, plus one kid that was in his class last year.  Plenty of familiar faces.

I love it.  I don't love giving up my lazy-stay-in-bed-until-9:30 Saturday mornings, but it's so easily worth it!

One of Zachary's early games.  Starts off w/ Zach getting to start the game with the ball, and waiting for the whistle to blow so he can take off.  Ends in a kid pile-up and Wyatt whining "Let ME see that picture".  Good times.