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Summer of Sports: Soccer!

Posted by | August 04, 2011 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

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As I said in this post (click), this is K & O’s Summer of Sports. And geeeez are we ever immersed in sports this summer. The floodgates have opened and we’re just swimming in sports! (no pun intended.) For the past six weeks Kyle and Owen have been fully participating (and I mean eagerly, incredibly-enthusiastically, whole-heartedly, blood-sweat-and-tears fully participating) in our local summer soccer league. They lucked out with getting great coaches and great teammates. They also lucked out with great weather (although it has been very hot for the past six weeks, they only had one game canceled due to rain).

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For these past six weeks, every Monday and Wednesday night, the Johnson-McCormick Party of Five has descended upon the soccer fields for the boys’ games. (In this league they practice for 15 minutes and then play for 45 minutes, twice per week; awesome set up for little kids who just want to play play play soccer soccer soccer!). Mommy has cheered her heart out, Papi has soaked up every summer-loving-second, Meera has chewed gum (her special treat on soccer nights for putting up with all this madness: gum), and Kyle and Owen have played their hearts out. We set out upon this whole thing thinking that Braydon and I would take turns taking the boys to soccer and getting Meera to bed, but the whole family ended up loving the whole dang thing so much that we all attended every single game.

It was so fun. For all of us.

M gum 1 M gum 2

The “Orange Lava” (as the boys’ team named themselves), turned out to be a really good soccer team! They were undefeated this season! And Kyle and Owen (no surprise here), turned out to be really good soccer players! There was only one game in which Kyle did not score— he scored at least one goal (usually two or three) in every single game except that one. Owen didn’t score in the first three games, but scored at least on goal in every game from that point on. Owen also turned out to be a really good goalie! Between Kyle, Owen, and their new BFF Caleb (new friend they met through this soccer; the three of them instantly became three peas in a pod; and they were a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field, leading their team through their undefeated season), the Orange Lava pretty much totally dominated every single team that they encountered; most nights the score averaged around 5 to 1, with Orange Lava just crushing the other team.

K scoring

O kicking

K forward 1 K forward 2

O goalie 1 O goalie 2

soccer with Caleb

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Kyle and Owen loved every single minute of Summer Soccer. I held out week after week, resisting signing them up for Fall Soccer, despite their coaches’ and other parents’ urgings to me to sign them up. It just feels like such a big commitment to agree to this kind of schedule when school is in session. But, like I predicted in the earlier post, now that this ball is rolling there is no stopping it. (no pun intended.) Ultimately I ended up signing them up for Fall Soccer (of course)… so we’ll get the rest of August “off” and then we’ll be back at it on the soccer fields (Mommy cheering my heart out, Papi soaking up every fall-loving-second, Meera chewing gum, Kyle and Owen playing their hearts out) for September and October. I have a feeling we’ll quite possibly be “back to the soccer fields” every fall for at least the next ten years or so.

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The end of the season came with trophies for the players of The Orange Lava. For the record: these are K & O’s first ever trophies. You would have thought you had just given them a check for a million bucks each, the way they reacted upon receiving these new-most-valuable-possessions. Seriously, they (especially Kyle) were so thrilled to get a trophy. They now have them proudly displayed on a special shelf in their bedroom where Meera can’t reach them.

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Also for the record I should note a couple of cute/funny/interesting things. The boys were, sadly/pathetically/disturbingly what clearly appeared to be two of only way too few non-white players in the league. But notably, rather than attempt to shrink into the crowd of whiteness, they instead made themselves stand out even further by insisting on wearing matching orange headbands to each and every game. The “headbands” were actually pieces of fabric cut out from the sleeve of their coaches’ soccer t-shirts (the pieces of fabric were going to be thrown away, but K & O grabbed them for headbands instead, and then proceeded to very proudly wear them for the entire season). They rocked the look so profoundly that, from what it appears, anyone and everyone who saw them seemed to think they were even more cool/awesome/super-starrish than ever. Interesting stuff. Very interesting stuff.

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Also: for the first couple of games their coaches could not, for the life of them, tell them apart. It was creating some serious complications on and off the field. I took it upon myself to write “K” and “O” on the backs of their shirts in permanent marker. That solved that problem. With the “K” and “O” shirts, the confusion was gone, and it was smooth sailing for the rest of the season.

shirts K shirts O

Never a dull moment, on or off the field, that is for sure. Summer soccer is done, but this story is surely not over. We have got some serious sports-loving athletes on our hands with these two boys. What will come of it? We’re counting our blessings that we get to watch and see.

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3 Comments

  • Phyl says:

    I suggest that you build lots of those special shelves. 😉 I spent many, many happy hours at the soccer games of my sons. Enjoy it all!

  • Kate says:

    Way to go Kyle and Owen!!! Love those headbands (and the story behind how they got them!!) reminds me of the professional football players that play for English or European teams, and nice to see their initials blazoned on their back!
    – Kate

  • anne konarski says:

    26 years ago my husband was the one of the only black kids in the soccer rec league in Texas. Then in FL from ages 7-13 he was the only one on his team. In Ohio from ages 13-18, he was the only black kid in his high school on the soccer team. Soccer is a great sport and needs people of color! There are so many great international players to watch, I hope the best for K & O! (And Meera!…did you see the USA in the World Cup!? Holy Moly!!)

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