The Madness Begins

Today, we were finally initiated into the chaos and craziness that is children's sports. In the past, both boys were too anxious to actually take part in the various sports we'd signed them up for. When Maceo was five, we tried for two seasons to get him to do Takoma Park Soccer, but he adamantly refused and just sit on the sidelines! But now he feels pretty confident about his soccer skills, and best of all, the class we signed him up for is for kids aged 5-7, so Cassius is on the team with him!

We arrived right on time to the school in Upper NW DC where the soccer practice is taking place (Indoors, luckily, because it was a cold, wintery, and rainy day today) and the boys needed no more than one directive to go join in. There were 9 kids, and Maceo actually stood a head taller than all of them. He also was much more skilled than any other kid. Back to the level of skill in a moment.

Maceo is the giant on the left. Cassius is in lime green on the right.

The coach started them out with some warm ups, and then he introduced soccer balls into the warm up. The kids had to do various running, jumping, and agility drills across the cafeteria floor to high five the coach before running back to their starting points. For Cassius, returning to his spot meant doing this little dance called the Floss that he likes to do. After these warmup drills, the coach broke them into teams by having them count off by 1s and 2s. Luckily, Maceo and Cassius were both 2s. However, the coach didn't see this, and he tried to get Cassius to join the 1's. "I'm a two," Cassius said quietly and went to stand with his brother. Then the games began. And in true little kid soccer fashion, it was madcap. Kids were jumping around, kicking, falling, running here and there, but mostly grouping up around the ball and trying to kick it somewhere, anywhere, even if it meant kicking it away from their teammate.

(Notice Cassius doing his little dance? That's "Flossing.")

Maceo is quite good at dribbling, so he tried to dribble around the defenders, but it really was impossible because his own teammates defended him along with the other team!

(Here you can really see the brotherly connection paying off with a "shot" on goal!)

After the practice, Maceo told me, "Next time, I'll really show them what I can do!", pumping his two fists in the air.

All in all, I was just pleased they enjoyed it and took part. I was a little disappointed that it took place in a small cafeteria since it's billed as a Play Games soccer and the cafeteria is a little dangerous, but the boys are into it, and so we can get them into a more realistic team setting when the weather gets nicer.