He Shoots... He Scores!

Matt and I have been contemplating for a long time on whether or not to get Lucas in to some sort of organized sports team. We have bounced ideas like tennis, t-ball, soccer and golf. Our hold up was if he was mature enough to play on a team. Would he be able to listen to his coaches? Would he be able to play as a team member? We knew he would be able to play. The kid loves sports and is pretty darn good in all of them. We own every piece of sporting equipment you can find in Tar.get. Sometimes we even own multiples of the items. He is obsessed with sports, but that isn't really a surprise knowing his father. 

So recently I was talking with one of my co-workers and her son plays soccer for the Vail Soccer Club and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. The best part is our boys are playing on the same team. As the season drew closer, we started getting Lucas prepared. We went to the sporting good store and got him some shin guards and cleats. Let me tell you, he is pretty darn CUTE in his shin guards and cleats! Lucas was so excited that we had to try them out that night!

Showing off his shin guards!

Check out those cleats!

He looks just like his Mommy when she played soccer back in the day!

Testing out the cleats with his mad soccer skills!
Again, he gets those skills from his Mommy!

Macie always in on the action.
She needs to do everything her bother does.

 A couple of weeks later Lucas had his first soccer practice. I don't know who was more excited, Lucas or me. I really couldn't wait to see how he was going to do. Well he did great. He kept right up with all of the other kids. He is the youngest player on the team, but he is not the smallest. Lucas listens really well to the coaches and follows the directions. There was only one moment when he was dribbling the ball that he dribbled it on to another team's soccer field and shot it into their goal.

After a few weeks of practice, Lucas had his first soccer game. We weren't too sure how it would go. He was a little nervous and kept saying he didn't want to get tackled (he had fallen down at practice earlier that week) and wasn't too happy about it. He went in a played, but did run off the field a few times when he was just done and didn't want to play anymore. But I figured he is 4 and it was his first time playing in a game. I was just proud of him for trying. Lucas' favorite part of the first game were the snack and the tunnel after. 

After a few games, Lucas has really gotten the hang of it and is really enjoying the games. His favorite thing to do is to play defense. If there were goalies at his age level, I think he would really like to play goalie. He is just like his Mommy. I used to play defense in high school on my soccer team. As they say, "Defense wins championships." That's my boy! Although, Lucas did score a goal and has had many assists to goals. Oh and Lucas is really working on not using his hands... As in, not tackling other players. Yes... That's my kid. When you ask him why he tackles, he says it is because he doesn't want the other team to score.  

Ready to play some defense!

Really my favorite part of Lucas playing soccer, is watching him play and his enthusiasm when someone on his team does score. He runs over every time and yells, "We scored!"