Kid Soccer

This morning I went to watch my 6 year-old nephew's soccer game. I had to drive out to eastern Escondido, which is very far away (past the Wild Animal Park!) and very hot. Is it ever not hot out there??

Anyway, organized sports for little kids are always fun to watch, and soccer I think is particularly hilarious. First of all, everybody wants to be goalie. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with the cool jersey he gets to wear. I would never want to be goalie - it's a hard job with a lot of pressure.

Of course at the age of six, none of the kids understand that they have a position to play. Foward? Halfback? Whatever . . . they just run around in a mob chasing after the soccer ball and mostly kicking air. Whenever kids do actually make contact with the ball, they usually are so startled that they freeze in place while the ball careens off in some random direction, usually toward the opposing team's goal.

What really cracked me up, though, were the parents. Along the sidelines, faithful moms and dads were shouting out helpful hints to their kids like "push it downfield!" "run after it!" "go that way!" and my personal favorite "kick it, kick it!" The parents were way more enthused than the players, who gazed with frequent regularity over at the Gatorade bottles on the sidelines. Did I mention it was hot?

Of course there are always one or two exceptions - mini David Beckhams and Mia Hamms, usually the smallest kids on the team. Today's game was no exception. Each team had one or two players whose agility, footwork, and speed made them excellent candidates for future World Cup teams. My nephew is not one of these little guys . . . yet.