Saturday, October 01, 2005
Game Day
Phil played his first game (two, actually) of micro-soccer today. Scores weren't officially kept, but Phil's team would've won both games if they had.
Individually, though, Phil struggled. This was his first experience with competitive sports (he was pretty much given a free pass while playing summer-camp games with the older kids), so he pouted on the sidelines quite a bit when the ball wasn't kicked to him as often as he wished.
It was my first experience as a dad at a competitive sporting event. I think I did a good job of focusing on the positive aspects of Phil's effort, rather than pointing out his shortcomings. The word of the day was "focus," as in "focus on the ball, not the 3,562 other things to look at on or near the playing field." I wasn't the only parent shouting it, so hopefully it won't come back to haunt me when Phil writes his tell-all book a decade or two from now.
It was also my first experience seeing Phil bullied by players on the opposite team. There were a couple kids in the second game who were into shoving and trash-talk. Phil came off the field in tears a few minutes before game ended, after one of the little snots on the other team called him a cheater (which, of course, he isn't). Part of me wants to teach Phil a salty rejoinder to defend himself with verbally; part of me wants to send him in with a lead pipe in his shinguard next Saturday.
For all that, though, Phil did me proud. Here's photographic proof:
After the game we celebrated with a trip to the cheap theaters to see Herbie Fully Loaded, which I was pleasantly surprised to find stayed pretty true to the original Love Bug movie. Cheesy and cliched, sure, but still amusing and well worth the $1.50 ticket price.
Individually, though, Phil struggled. This was his first experience with competitive sports (he was pretty much given a free pass while playing summer-camp games with the older kids), so he pouted on the sidelines quite a bit when the ball wasn't kicked to him as often as he wished.
It was my first experience as a dad at a competitive sporting event. I think I did a good job of focusing on the positive aspects of Phil's effort, rather than pointing out his shortcomings. The word of the day was "focus," as in "focus on the ball, not the 3,562 other things to look at on or near the playing field." I wasn't the only parent shouting it, so hopefully it won't come back to haunt me when Phil writes his tell-all book a decade or two from now.
It was also my first experience seeing Phil bullied by players on the opposite team. There were a couple kids in the second game who were into shoving and trash-talk. Phil came off the field in tears a few minutes before game ended, after one of the little snots on the other team called him a cheater (which, of course, he isn't). Part of me wants to teach Phil a salty rejoinder to defend himself with verbally; part of me wants to send him in with a lead pipe in his shinguard next Saturday.
For all that, though, Phil did me proud. Here's photographic proof:
- Action shot 1 & 2
- Phil kicks the ball inbounds
- Waiting for the ball to come back in play
- When in doubt, jump
- Shaking hands with the other team
- Team Photo
After the game we celebrated with a trip to the cheap theaters to see Herbie Fully Loaded, which I was pleasantly surprised to find stayed pretty true to the original Love Bug movie. Cheesy and cliched, sure, but still amusing and well worth the $1.50 ticket price.
Mikesell
