Daddy's Proudest Day

My son Max scored his first ever soccer goal today! After a goalless season of U5s at DreamCamps and then an instructional session of L'il Kickers (where they don't play any actual games), Max started in the U6 instructional league at Soccer Dome. At first I was a little wary because the drills seemed to be a bit above his level but once they started scrimmaging, I saw a soccer player emerge. Back during his first season of U5s, I used to joke that Max was destined to play sweeper because he was always 10 yards behind the play and showed almost no aggression toward the ball. But today at Soccer Dome he was a completely different player. As soon as he realized it was Game On he was after the ball like Edgar "the pitbull" Davids. About 10 minutes into the game, he raced ahead of the bunch to pick up a loose ball and with visions of Beckham against Wimbeldon unleashed an audacious shot from beyond the halfway line that left the keeper rooted to the spot watching the ball whistle by into the net. (In the interest of full disclosure, I guess I should point out that the entire field was only 20 yards long and the keeper was a parent who was less mobile than Tony Meola circa 2005) Max went on to score 5 goals during the half-hour practice game. Not even the fact that 3 of his goals were own goals scored into the wrong net can temper my pride tonight!

-- Jarrett @ 1/12/2006 09:20:00 PM