Gavin's Soccer

This year we had Gavin tryout for a competitive soccer league and he made a team! They organized the boys according to age and skill. The way Gavin's birthday falls makes him one of the youngest on the team and their team was a level 5 (leveled 1 through 5 with 5 being the lowest skill level). We were just excited that Gavin made a team given his enthusiasm for soccer. A lot of the boys played competitive soccer the year before, but Gavin had just played on a city team and didn't have the same ball handling skill as the other boys. It's been an extremely busy time getting Gavin back and forth to practices, games, tournaments, etc. We've had to travel as far as 1 1/2 hours away for games or some as close as 20 minutes away. On days when Gavin didn't have practice, he had to run 2 miles a day and improve on his time getting done in less than 20 min. That's not always easy to schedule in with school, homework, scouts, etc...not to mention time for him to just play and be a kid! But...Gavin really loves soccer. They had their last game of the season last week...so it's kind of a relief! The Spring season doesn't start for quite a few months. In the off season Gavin's coach wants them to do basketball or some other sport and continue running... This whole experience has been new for us and I've come out of it with some definite pros and cons. Pros are that Gavin loves it, and the games are exciting to watch because the boys are actually set up with positions on the field and it's great to cheer the boys on and see them improve. The cons are that it's sooo time consuming! and Gavin's particular coach didn't give Gavin much game time...like less than 5 minutes some games! Frustrating after all the work Gavin was putting in. Jason talked to the coach and the coach said Gavin's not improving the way he should and not aggressive enough on the field...that in combination with his short height makes the coach think the other team sees him as an easy target to get by. I understand where the coach is coming from, but at the same time, it's so much work for our whole family for so little payoff. Gavin even did extra drills with Jason on top of running on the days he didn't have soccer to try to improve on his skill. I talked to a couple of the other moms and apparently there are quite a few parents who felt like a lot of favoritism was going on and were also upset with how little game time some of the other boys were getting...even during practice some of the less favorite boys seemed to be sitting on the sidelines...during practice! So maybe it's the coach. I do have to say that he did help the kids a lot improve on their skills starting out with a team at the lowest level we actually got 3rd place at the end of the season and won 1st place during one of the 3 day summer tournaments! Gavin loves soccer so much that we'll probably continue on and try to help him improve on his skill and see which coach he might get next year if he makes a team...we'll see...right now I'm a little burnt out and glad it's the off-season...

Gavin stopping the ball.

Gavin out on the field.

Owen trying to entertain himself during one of the games.

Aidan chasing after Owen for us.