Geckos Kickoff (week 297)

We kicked off another season of Heartwell Park AYSO 114 soccer Thursday night with mama acting as the team mom and dad coaching the Under 6 Long Beach Geckos.  Our jerseys are bright green, which I think is totally cool.  Christopher thinks it is totally cool too.  When we pulled-out our uniforms and suited-up (daddy found his old Hot Chillys jersey from 1996), Christopher also put on his Ireland soccer jersey and played along with us in the backyard. 

To prepare for the season, we also converted the backyard from a baseball field to a real-deal soccer field.  We cut the grass on Saturday morning as we always do, but instead of striping the batters box and foul lines with white paint, we striped the goal line, center line, penalty boxes, and set-up the goals that have been hanging in the garage since last season.  In a change from just a few months ago when I said that I didn't want to play soccer anymore, I told my parents that I was officially done with baseball season and that I was ready for soccer.

This year, Nathan and Jackson both return to the soccer team.  The big difference this year is that we are the big difference.  Whereas we were the little kids at 4-years-old playing against 5 and 6-year-olds...we are now the big kids at 5.  It is really cool to see such a major difference.  In fact, Christopher at 3 is bigger than one of the kids on our team!  We practice right across the street from Jackson's house, so it is nice to be able to play at his house after practice.  We can also stash the equipment there and his dad can set-up the field for practice since my dad is always arriving from work at the last minute.  With budget meetings right now, he is also leaving immediately at the end of practice to get dressed and go back to work.

We don't have as high as hopes that we will go undefeated this year.  Last year as the Silver Sharks we had a little more horsepower and only lost two of our games.  This will definitely be a rebuilding year but as number 8 (the biggest kid on the team), I intend to be a team leader this time around.