Toby is now playing soccer, and he’s impressing me*. Again, just like when watching baseball and football, I can tell that he understands what is supposed to happen. Not that he is able to actually make the right things happen, but he knows the objectives. When the opposing team gets a breakaway, instead of chasing the kid who has the ball, he runs back as fast as possible to defend his goal. That’s smart. I didn’t teach him that. He’s just a very cerebral kid, and it’s a lot of fun to watch him go.
*I am kinda-sorta his coach — I say ‘kinda-sorta’ because I did not sign up to coach, but the person who did didn’t show up Week 1, which forced my hand. I was very frustrated as I took the field to help, but it has been really really fun.
This past Friday, it was chilly on the field. I knew the Yellow Gators were in trouble when only 5 kids showed up out of the usual 8. 1 of them was a little girl who quickly informed me that she was already cold and wanted to go drink the hot chocolate that her Grandma brought in a thermos for her. And we play 40 minute “games”, 5 on 5, subbing regularly so that all 8 kids get to both play a lot and rest a lot. 5 minutes into the game, it started pouring down rain.
Toby was awesome. He never slowed down. He just kept running. He got a few assists on offense, and he saved no less than 5 sure-thing goals by hustling back to protect goal. (Ok, so there’s no such thing as a sure-thing goal when it comes to 5-year-olds and soccer, but you get my point.) Because of our lack of personnel and the cold wetness, we called the game a little early and packed up.
“Toby, if you want, we can go to a football game tonight. Soccer is over early, so we have time.” Yes, I want to go. “Great. The closest game is at Oak Hills High School.” I don’t even know what that is! “Or, we could drive down to Taylor High School where Mommy and Daddy went to high school.” Orrrrrrrrrrr…. “Haha. Or, we could drive a little farther and go watch the Elder Panthers play at Saint Xavier High School.” What is Saint Xavier’s mascot? “The Bombers.” That. Let’s go see the Panthers play the Bombers.
So we took North Bend Road. He talked all the way there about football and about how this was going to be his first football game. I thought about how fun it would be for him, and of course for me, too. The lights, the crowd noise, the banging of helmets, the autumn concession food, the marching bands. We got to St X right at 7:30, but there was no reasonable place to park. It was 7:45 before I parked in somebody’s front yard, and another 10 minutes before we made it to the gate…
…to find out that it was sold out. No tickets available. Ugh. Daddy fail. Sad Toby.
But the beautiful thing about it all is this didn’t ruin our night. No doubt, he was bummed. “But just because we couldn’t get in the stadium doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time! There are more games next week, and we’ll go to one! And since we aren’t at the game, we have time to go get dessert somewhere!” He was still bummed, but he came around. He’s cool like that.
Toby’s first football game will be this Friday at The Pit. Elder V Moeller. I assure you, I am more excited to watch Toby experience it than he could ever be.
