We just wrapped up another season of soccer for Kai. He had a good time and really seemed to like the kids on his team. Every year we debate if we should sign him up or not since soccer can be rather dominating of time, but I'm glad we did.
This year was sort of a different experience. They place kids on teams based on their birthdays so Kai was one of the youngest on a team made up of 6 year olds (by the end of September), 7 year olds, and even some 8 year olds who had birthdays during the season I guess). That seemed like a HUGE age difference to me. Some of the kids just looked and seemd SOOO much older. With that said when the lined up by height to pass out jerseys Kai was 2nd to tallest on his team so he probably looks older to most people anyway.
Despite being one of the younger ones Kai did really well. For most of the season he and the tallest/ oldest kid in the team picture were the only ones who scored goals. This was really a change for Kai from past seasons where he might occasionally score but for the most part seemed to be more of a defensivly minded player. It was fun seeing this light switch turn on in him with this new offensive determination. It was also interesting to look over at the field next to his and see some kids in his school class born after September playing on a smaller field at a much different level of play. It seems like if he wants to play sports later on in life in school this has the opportunity to be a large confidence booster for him which we think is great.
As you can see he was back on a red jersey team this year. So far he's been on 2 red teams and 2 orange teams. There are several other colors in the leagues he's played in but for some reason he's always ended up with one of these. This year he was on the team named "The Mini-Rebels".
It was super hot, and then super cold and windy, and then just about right the last 2games. So it goes in Vegas. Lance spent most of the games watching from the sides while kicking an extra ball back and forth with Rori. She has already gotten quite good at dribbling the ball while running at full speed. I spent most of the games trying to shield Zuri from the sun or the wind. Zuri seemed to enjoy the games though- or maybe it was just all the people cheering, kids running, and this stuff called grass that we don't see much of here in Vegas.
Our good camera ended up being in the shop most of soccer season so these are taken at picture day before practice one night with our dinky old camera. Here is Kai with a few buddies from the team.
Sam and Kai are in the same Primary class together at Church. They just moved in so we got to know them at soccer which was fun. On a random side note his Mom works full time as a sign language interpretor. We've had some interesting talks about hearing at practices as you might imagine. Funny how you get certain people placed in your life at precise times.
This picture is of Kai with his new friend Lucas. We had never met Lucas before but after the boys hit it off at practice we came to learn that his family also meets in our Church building but at another time. We're going to have to get the boys together sometime to play because Lucas was very sweet.
So all in all I think Kai had a good experience, developled some more skills in soccer, and made some new friends. Now we will happily welcome back some soccer free Saturdays (and practice nights) for a time.
