Callie's First Soccer Season

Fall 2012 was a big season for Callie because it marked her entrance into the wonderful world of rec soccer. We signed her up for the U-5 league and were very pleased when we met her team and coaches. She was on the Sting, and her seven teammates included Janey, Finley, Julian, Solly, Mac, Dean, and because we were able to make it happen, Callie's best friend Maddie. They are a great bunch of kids, and what made the season even better is that they came with a great group of parents. So we bought all the soccer gear, including pink shinguards, socks, and soccer ball. This picture, taken the day of her first game, shows that Callie was very excited and ready to go.

Looks, however, can sometimes be deceiving. A running theme of all eight games was whether or not Callie would agree to play when her coaches wanted her to go into the game. In fact, at the very first game, she refused to step on the field until the second half. Poor Coach Patrick did his best and even came over to us to see if we had any advice. We simply shrugged our shoulders and told him not to worry too much about it. We certainly were not going to get upset at him if Callie refused to play. Over the course of the season, though, Callie warmed up. Coach Ramsey was especially good at getting her ready to go in the game, and by the end of the season Callie was usually playing half of the game, just like she was supposed to. Now, that didn't mean she was an aggressive player. In fact, the only time she kicked the ball was when it was either a goal kick or a kick off. She ran around and was usually in a good position, but she never went out of her way to actively compete for a free ball. Callie has a lot of skills to pick up before the Women's World Cup of 2027.

Callie was also fortunate to have her California aunties present at her soccer debut. Few other kids had the kind of paparazzi following that she did on the sidelines.

And the aunties had a lot of fun watching Callie dance and skip around the soccer field on a beautiful fall day. And we'll never know if the skipping was Callie's natural go to move or if it was inspired by Auntie D's pre-game pep talk.

Of course, when Callie was not skipping or dancing around the soccer field she was holding Maddie's hand or talking to Maddie all while the game was going on around them. These two couldn't get enough of each other and had an absolute blast being on the same team. We were very happy that we had worked with Maddie's parents to make it happen. The season was a good one and even though we had no goalies and did not keep score, there was a big difference between Game 1 and Game 8. The kids definitely looked like they had a better idea of what to do by the end of the season. They did still run the wrong way sometimes, but these things happen. Now it remains to be seen if Callie will want to play again. She has said she wants to, but you just never know.