U8 Soccer, 2018

We have heard that Spring Soccer was pretty low key, and we agree with this assessment.

Jack had previously played in the Fall, but chose to do Flag Football this past year instead of another round of soccer.

Our rule continues to be one sport at a time and thankfully the seasons worked out that Basketball wrapped up right before spring soccer.

Spring soccer is co-ed teams, and Jack enjoyed getting to play with girls, and meeting some kids that he hadn't met in previous sports.

Unfortunately a lot of spring rain meant that more than half of the games and practices were cancelled. We have joked that they got really expensive jerseys this year!

Jack played #6 on Team Uruguay (all the teams were named after countries around the world). Our team held there own, though no official score keeping.

Jack has improved in the sense that he wasn't as timid going after the ball and running harder during the game.

This season we played in the rain, the fog, the cold, and the heat.

Jack enjoyed spring soccer and is looking forward to playing again next spring (hopefully there won't be as many games cancelled then!).

Soccer ended with medals (Jack was super pumped to get two medals in one weekend).

He is really proud of the collection of medals and team photos he has going. He removed all of the books from a picture rail bookshelf we have set up and made a display of his trophies/medals/team pictures instead.

Sports Jack has Tried: 

T Ball, Gymnastics, U6 Soccer,  Taekwondo, Flag Football, Peewee Basketball

Peewee Basketball, 2018

While Flag Football proved to be quite the competitive sport in our neck of the woods, Peewee Basketball was the exact opposite.

 

While we were somewhat surprised at how much we liked Flag Football, basketball was good in a different kind of way.

For starters, Jack was on a team with one of his best friends from our neighborhood (whose dad was the coach). This was good because Jack loved going every week, but perhaps bad in the sense that Jack just wanted to constantly cut up with his friend.

Jack was #5 on the Tennessee Tech Team (go Eagles!). And if he had as assigned position, played a point guard. He was funny to watch on defense because he would make these hilarious, intimidating faces with his hands up. He ran down the court backwards once, but made a recovery before he made a shot on the wrong goal. He did manage to score one basket (see video below) and overall had a really great experience, even making some new friends.

Jack's coach (his friend's dad) did a great job of getting the team started with fundamentals. They all learned how to dribble the ball and pass (this can't be said for all the teams in this age group this season), and how to try to work together as a team.

Jack even managed to score during one game – we were ecstatic for him.

I grew up playing basketball, so it's hard to watch these early years of this sport (and he doesn't want to listen to me), but if he likes it and wants to continue, we will be back next season, cheering and laughing along at the silliness of this age group.

Also, as homeschoolers, sports have allowed us to really continue to be a part of our community and we are so grateful for that.

Some sports seem to be more serious, but most of the rec sports where we live are fun and establish camaraderie among the kids and parents. I look forward to seeing what kind of improvements Jack makes between kindergarten and first grade next year...

Sports Jack has Tried: 

T Ball, Gymnastics, U6 Soccer,  Taekwondo, Flag Football