Youth sports at this age are usually a little… chaotic. And honestly, that’s to be expected.
At five years old, soccer has looked a lot less like an organized game and a lot more like practicing drills, chasing a ball around the field, and occasionally kicking it into the goal. Sometimes there’s a short makeshift game at the end, sometimes not. At this stage, it’s mostly about exposure, movement, and having fun.
But this past weekend’s game was a little different.
Kay showed up ready to play, only to realize that she was the only player from her team there. And it turns out… the opposing team didn’t show up either.
The weather was perfectly fine—just a little windy—and the fields were full of families from earlier games and other teams still playing. So we weren’t really sure what happened.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
For the first half hour, we mostly hung out near the field trying to kick the ball around. I’ll be honest… around the 30-minute mark I started to consider packing up and heading home since no one had come over to talk with us and there didn’t seem to be a plan.
If you know me, you know I always want to give things a fair chance—but I’d also be lying if I said I haven’t questioned whether soccer is the right fit for us.
The season has been very different from what we experienced with t-ball. We’ve had very little communication, and funnily enough, I’ve never actually met Kay’s official coach.
But just when we were about ready to call it a day, something sweet happened.
A good friend of ours—who also happens to volunteer coach another team—noticed Kay and came over to help her practice kicking the ball into the goal. For the rest of our time there, Kay happily worked on her kicks and got some one-on-one encouragement.
There’s only one game left in the season, and I’m hoping next weekend is a little more eventful. Whether soccer ends up being “our sport” or not, I’m still proud of Kay for showing up ready to play.
Sometimes that’s the biggest win of all.