After a fun season of t-ball this past spring, we signed Silas up for soccer through Somerset West Soccer Club. Silas was on the Bears team–coached by a friend just down the street from us.

Our motivations for signing Silas up for soccer were to give him time to be with his buddies and to provide opportunities for him to learn new skills and sportsmanship. I hadn’t considered the friendship aspect of sports originally, but when one of Silas’s friends didn’t return to Bethany Elementary, I was glad they could at least play soccer together.

Micro-soccer was a lot of fun since the boys played three-on-three with no goalie. All the players had to hustle, and they also got a lot of opportunities to kick the ball. Coach Nick was a patient and enthusiastic instructor for the kids.

Our little guy learned so much about soccer (and he looked pretty cute in his shin guards and cleats). It was fun to see him develop as a player. At first, he would patiently wait for his turn to kick the ball, since he was used to very definite “turns” in t-ball. We had to coax him to jump in there and get a few good kicks in.

Dribbling was also a new concept as he mainly wanted to go for the long kicks straight down the field. He even managed to make 4 or 5 goals, and was thrilled to receive his participation trophy at the close of the season.

We’re thankful for a group of boys/dads/families that attend school together and play sports together.