The BIG KICK

Kaitlin and William have teamed together on this falls soccer team.  A 5-6 league with the same church league that they have played (New Hope).  To set the stage, this is his 3rd year of soccer.  Each year, he has gotten progressively better.  He loves getting out and running the field, he probably runs more than any of the other kids.  He is not very aggressive and can be passive at times, thus the long periods of running.  Many times, it's away from the ball.  To his credit, he's been working very hard and practicing his kicks.  We've spent a lot of time discussing a number of focus points that ultimately are great life lesson's:  Never give up, always do your best, stay positive and good things will happen. 

Tonights game - 4th quarter (maybe period in soccer - Daddy knows nothing about soccer).  William is on a 1 on 3 break away.  He dribbles the ball through 2 defenders, winds up and boom........  He SCORES, He Scores...  Straight down the middle, passes the goal tender and nothing but net.  The crowd (Mommy, KK, Madison, MawMaw, PawPaw and Daddy) erupts and go nuts.  William's first goal.  His reaction was priceless - he turned around to run back to mid field, teammates flanking him, giving him five.  Not much reaction from him - he was stunned and pleasantly surprised.  Finally, he looked over with a big grin on his face.  Priceless.  Must say, man, I'm lucky I had my sun glasses on.  My eyes filled with tears of pure joy for him.  A big moment in our little man's life.  You could instantly see the new found confidence in him from the goal.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes.  And what a valuable lesson... His first words after the game to me were "All that practice that I did yesterday helped my kick."