Kayla's Soccer Season

Kayla's soccer season had been pretty nonexsistent up until this past weekend, and not just because of all of the wet weather.  Kayla attended one practice, participated for about five minutes, and then proceeded to tell me for the next several weeks that she hated soccer, she was scared of her coach, and that she didn't want to play.  As a last chance effort to salvage the season and my hard-earned money that was already spent, I took her to a game that actually hadn't been rained out.  I had already warned the coach ahead of time not to give Kayla much attention; no amount of pressure or positive encouragement was going to get her out on the field until she was ready.  And boy, was I right (moms know best). 

 

The game started with Kayla barefoot with her back turned to the field. 

After about 10 minutes, she turned around and started watching the game.  The next 25 minutes consisted of Kayla demanding that I put her socks, shinguards, and shoes on....and then she would take them off.  Then she would ask for them to be put on.....and then she would remove them and throw them on the ground once more.  For any parent who has stuffed their kid's legs into shinguards, knee high socks, and narrow cleats knows how much of a pain in the a*# this was.  But I just kept my mouth quiet and let her deal with her own internal struggle.

After I had her gear donned for, like, the fifteenth time, Kayla randomly hopped off the bench, grabbed her pink ball, and ran out onto the field (mid-game, mind you), and presented herself to Coach Leann.  I was grateful that Coach Leann didn't bat an eye and just told Kayla to go chase the ball.

 And thus, my soccer star was born.

Here are a couple of videos of Kayla playing in her first game ever (keep in mind, she participated for five minutes at one practice, although she does enjoy to kick with us in the backyard).  Once she got the hang of the game, meaning she realized that she was allowed to take the ball from other kids, there are NO HANDS in soccer, and when you have the ball you are supposed to kick it into the goal, she did okay.  We can't wait until her next game to see the Kayla Jean Domination that we all KNOW is inside of her.