Spring Soccer

So we've been playing a little soccer this spring. And Claire is really loving it ... and her skills are much improved from the fall. In fact, her coach told Will last week that she is definitely the most improved player from the fall team. (We have several new players that were added on to the team in the spring.)

I never know whether to take "most improved player" as an compliment on your current skills or an insult to how bad you were before. (I was the "most improved player" my junior year of high school on our school's softball team.) I think for a 3-4 year old to go from having no soccer experience to being a decent player is quite a compliment in this case though and we are very proud of our girl.

Here are some pictures from the game last week.

The red team was scrappy. They had some mad goal-tending skills, but the "Blueberries" managed to score several times despite the fact that pretty much their entire team was standing in the goal every time we tried to score. In fact, Claire scored her first goal on Saturday!! We were super-pumped and she was so proud of herself.

Getting a pep-talk from one of the other dads.

Lining up to play defense.

More running and kicking the ball.

I love that Claire is improving her athletic skills, but I think it is most important that she learns to play on a team and show good sportsmanship and she has that down pat. She never tries to take the ball away from a fellow blueberry (like several of her teammates do), she always cheers when her teams scores regardless of who scores and she is always concerned when someone falls and gets hurt. (The red team fell down a lot and she would always stop and check on them.)

A team photo from the beginning of the season.