Soccer and Why I Am Crazy

Marshall is a soccer playin' boy! Ok. so here is is a stick swinging boy in a soccer uniform! He seems to like soccer, which is nice. The reason why I say I am crazy is because I volunteered to be the Head Coach. Yes, insane isn't it?! Well, I volunteered waaaaay back in June when I signed him up for soccer, but I never heard anything so I figured I was off the hook. The week that games were supposed to begin, I got an email saying that the parents could view the soccer schedule. I kept wondering why the coach hadn't started practice yet, seeing how we had a game in 4 days, but I knew how busy I was, so I figured the coach must be busy too. Imagine my surprise when I signed in to view the team schedule and it said, "Geneva Elementary, Head Coach Aprilyn Bucklein." Oh. My. Gosh! As if my life isn't busy and crazy enough, I had 4 days to coordinate a practice, pick up uniforms and balls, and call all the parents. Oh yeah, AND get shin guards for Marshall. That isn't easy because he's so dang little that they don't quite fit! I managed to get everything ready for our first practice 2 days later. I decided to hold practices in my backyard for now because I didn't have time to arrange anything else. I'm not sure if that's the best option though, because there are too many toys around. Almost all of the boys' stomp rockets have now ended up on our roof, thanks to all the excited kids around. Ah well, it's not like they played with them all that much. Our team has 11 boys, ages 4 and 5, and every single one of them is a new player. I mean, none of them have played before at all. When it's time to kick off the ball, the kids on my team always walk waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back then run up and kick the ball. The hilarious thing is, the ball barely goes a few feet, even with all that extra running. Too funny! The difficult thing is keeping track of whose turn it is to sit out. Marshall does NOT like to sit out. NOT ONE BIT!! I had to have a Dad go on the field and coach the rest of the game several times because he screams and gets so angry when it's his turn to sit out for a bit. Thankfully, Brian was finally able to come to a game on Saturday and he could take care of Marshall for me. Here are some pictures of our 1st game.

I tried so hard to get a picture of Marshall holding his soccer ball in the front yard, but I was running late for the game so I gave up. The boys were having fun laughing at something.

There! I got him to at least look at me! See Nate in his Scout uniform? That's because RIGHT after soccer, we eat sandwiches for dinner in the car while we race to Scouts. Brian meets us there, and takes the van to teach at UVU while Marshall and I stay at Troop Meeting with Nate. That works well for Marshall because he feels like he is part of the troop anyway! I'll have to get some pictures of that soon.

Nate was trying to take pictures for me. He wanted to get one of Marshall holding his ball. Oh well. :)

This one turned out pretty cute, don't ya think? See how HUGE his uniform is on him?? It's the smallest size available...Extra Small. Hmm...maybe he needs an extra, extra, extra small!

We played the Red Dragons at our first game. Those guys really know how to play! Here they are, about to score on us. That team was really good at things like, oh, I don't know...kicking the ball into a goal, following the ball after you kick it..just stuff like that. But our team is SO polite and we have a lot of fun too. Here is what we do best-

Isn't that AWESOME?! Marshall is the one plugging his nose, with his hand up in the air. I have NO IDEA what he was doing. I guess he was just striking a pose....silly guy! So, 4 yr olds playing soccer is quite interesting. Our team doesn't usually score, but we kick off an awful lot! Sometimes the boys on our team even see the ball on the ground. Other times, their hands and fingers are just so fascinating, or they might be busy telling me how they are gonna kick the other guys' butts. Hmm...yeah, well, THAT would require you to actually KICK the ball! The ball comes to our boys and most of the time they don't even notice. It totally cracks me up! Oh well, if they have fun, that's what is important, right?!