One More Time

Our oldest is crazy about soccer.  She loves it.  And she's good at it. 

When your kids find something they enjoy it's pretty great to see.  I love watching her play, you can just tell that she is having a great time out there. 

So, when she was asked to be on a team that was playing in a tournament in another town, we said yes!  It was a 3v3 tournament which is something she has never done before but we knew and trusted the coach.  We thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the game and herself.

We were right.

But not in the ways we thought we were.

The team that she joined was made up of girls that already knew each other and had played together for a while.  Did I mention that these girls are 13-14yo?  Yeah, you know what that means. 

Cliquish.  It's just what girls that age do.  They almost can't help it.  It was compounded by the fact that they all knew each other and then to add salt to the wound they asked her what school she went to.  When her answer was homeschool, they wrinkled their noses and and asked, "Really?"  Nothing more was said about it.  They all chatted and talked and she just stood on the outskirts almost participating. 

Now, to be fair B had had strep that week and wasn't feeling the greatest.  And, she is not the best socializer in new situations.  She is rather painfully shy.  So there were many things working against the whole situation from the start.

Add to that the fact that they could only get two practices in due to weather and scheduling conflicts and that equals one very uncomfortable young lady.  The easy thing to do would have been to let her quit.  But we are not known for doing the easy thing! lol  We assured her that she could do this and encouraged her to just be friendly and play the game.

Tournament day came and found us sitting in a different town for the entire day.  Hey, at least the weather was nice! lol  But the best thing that we saw was our shy daughter really talking, joking around, and getting to know these girls.  She ended up having a really great time and she learned a lot about herself.  As a person and a player.

They didn't end up winning the tourney, but B scored a goal and saved many from going in.  It was great day but I am glad it is over.  Soccer is over for the summer...at least until camp in August that is!!