Deployment Day 16 You Can't Tell a Book by its Cover

The first soccer game for Carter and the guys will be this Saturday. We have been practicing and trying to learn the basics of the game. We are working on dribbling, passing and just running. I know, all little boys run but some are better than others. Carter, unfortunately runs like most Tangen men. He is slow and manages to look as if he is falling the whole time. At the end of every practice we have the boys scrimmage for the last 20 minutes. Once the boys start playing Carter's running skills don't seem to matter. He is right in the thick of it.

We start the practice with some stretching and then a run. One of the other boys skips instead of runs. He shuffles through the dribbling practices and just overall seems to be a hundred miles away. He is not disruptive or anything like that just totally uninterested. In the scrimmage he turns into a tiger. He is always in the thick of it. Running, kicking and trying to steal the ball from the opposing player. In fact he is the only boy that tries at every opportunity to steal the ball and make shots on goal. I said something to his mother about this and she was also amazed. He has never played a sport before and this competitiveness was something she had never seen.

Another boy runs like the wind and has good ball control skills. During the scrimmage he holds back by the goal and never really attacks the ball. I keep trying to get him to move forward but with little success. I finally discover that he wants to be the goalie because he hates to run. As the boys learn to play soccer I'm also learning some valuable lessons about kids, abilities and desire to win.