Cal Gos tuw Soccer Now

Neither Dan nor I played soccer.  Ever.  Neither of us showed any interest in playing or watching the game.  Ever.  It’s just an uninteresting game to both of us, largely due to the field being too big and scoring too infrequent.

That said, it does seem like a good candidate sport to expose kids to at an early age.  I’ve seen many a 4-year-old just running around without purpose yet happy in a confined area –- why not throw a ball on the ground, a goal on either end of the area and give him something to work towards?

So I’ve known soccer would inevitably be a part of the Leatherman family at some point.

I’ve picked up many fliers left by a local soccer organization at the kids’ school promoting its programs.  In some cases, the program is brought to the school – sign your kid up, and he’ll get some instruction and soccer playtime along with other classmates for an hour or so once a week for some number of weeks.  We never signed Cal up for this program -- for one, because we pay enough in daycare costs already, and gym time is part of the curriculum; second, that whole icky soccer thing.  Had it been tee ball or basketball, there’s a good chance our standards would have been different.

I always felt bad about not signing him up for soccer.  He never complained about it, but on occasion did mention that he classmates went to soccer.  I don’t know how many of them did –- it may have only been Ethan and Aliza -– but my mind went directly to imagining him sitting in his classroom midday alone and within earshot of his friends happily kicking a soccer ball around in the gym.  So every time I saw the familiar flier, I’d grab it thinking maybe this time we’ll do it but never acted on it.

The most recent flier advertised a summer evening soccer camp.  8 weeks of hour-long soccer instruction for kids around Cal’s age.  Hmm… maybe we should do this, I thought to myself.

Cal saw the flier and recognized it right away.  “I want to play soccer,” he said.  When Cal says things that he wants to do, we have to take it with a grain of salt.  We’ve found that what he wants to do varies from one day to the next, as is true of many kids, I’m sure.

Cal's Play-Soccer Hint (April, 2013)

Next thing I knew, Cal was writing something on the soccer flier, his signature tongue sticking out as he did so.  When he was finished, he showed it to me.  On the name line of the registration portion of the flier, I saw this: “Cal gos tuw soccer now.”

That night, I signed him up for soccer.

Shortly thereafter when we were upstairs hanging out in Cal’s room, I saw the unworn, fantastic pair of black, shoelaced New Balance “running” shoes I had bought him awhile back.  I don’t even think I managed to get him to at least try them on.  “I don’t like THESE!” he’d exclaim, pointing at the laces as he did so.  Instead, Cal happily wears a pair of cheap, velcroed, stiff Disney character shoes with heels that light up with each step.  I hate those shoes, and I see this soccer thing as an opportunity to get him out of them.

“You know you’ve got to wear different shoes when you play soccer, ones that are going to stay on your feet, Baby Bear.”

Cal’s response, looking wide-eyed right at me?  “I don’t want to play soccer.”

And he's held firm to that stance ever since.