Landon's Soccer Debut

This is my last "catch-up" post...and then I can move on to more recent within this month events. :)



Landon had his first experience with "organized" soccer mid-June...actually the week of the St. Louis weekend.



When we first mentioned the possibility of him going to soccer camp, he wasn't at all interested. There was a conversation about him taking Daddy's car and driving away and getting the firemen to come "wham"soccer camp. Yikes. That disturbed me a little. I was wondering if we needed to enroll him in some kind of counseling instead of soccer camp. Shortly after though, he was bragging to people he was GOING to soccer camp, so we enrolled him.




So a few nights before camp, we got out his shin guards (hand me downs from our cousins Nick and Nate) and he tried those on. He was Pumped with a capital P. Then the first day of camp rolled around and he balked when it was time to put them on. He wanted to go to camp, but he did NOT want to wear his shin guards and he did NOT want to play. He just wanted to watch. Uh...okay. So Chad took him to camp and Landon watched from the sidelines for the first 15-20 minutes...camp is only 45 minutes long by the way. Then he decided he would play. He scrimmaged I guess, as well as three year olds can do that, and a couple of times he picked up the ball. After the coaches told him not to use his hands, he ran from the field, and was hysterical on the sideline saying his tummy hurt and he wanted to go home. That was the end of camp day one.

He came in the door whining, and I asked what was wrong. He told me his tummy was hurting so I just assumed it really was. Chad beckoned me in the other room and told me what happened. So we concluded his tummy ache was probably more embarrassment than real tummy ache. That evening I asked him if he was excited to go back to camp tomorrow and he said, "I went to soccer camp today, Mom. I'm not going tomorrow." I explained that it was four days...he said he wasn't going.

Tuesday Abby got here in the morning and he announced to her that he w

as going to soccer camp...again...surprise to us. So we got him ready, he again refused the shin guards, and on the way out the door asked Chad to please take his Hot Wheels chair because he was just going to watch. Chad looked at him, looked at me, and then said, "Buddy, you're gonna make a heck of a manager some day," and walked out the door. Day two and day three pretty much went like day one, minus the crying. And by day four he was playing right away, but

still wanted nothing to do with the shin guards.


I was feeling a tad bit guilty because "Coach Sam," the organizer of soccer camp, got roped into doing it because of me. The people who run the summer rec program asked Chad to do it, and since he had a million and one other things already on his plate for the summer, he turned it down. When I told them he couldn't do it, they were wondering about who to ask...and I opened my big mouth and said, "You know who would be great at that...Sam Jakaitis." SORRY SAM. Coach Sam is in the red shirt in the headline picture with his "staff." You guys did a great job. Kudos to running a smooth soccer camp with toddlers. That's quite an accomplishment. THANK YOU!!

And while I'm doling out "kudos" I should thank my lovely husband and photographer. While he was toting the Hot Wheels chair in one hand, he had the camera in the other and was given the direction to capture blog material. He delivered. Here are some videos of Landon's "skills" and maybe some areas we should work on. Three year olds are a hoot playing sports...as long as you're not trying to "coach" them. :)