Futbol?

Well Neal always dreamed of one of his kids playing Football... he didn't say it had to be AMERICAN football! When I saw the sign-ups for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Org) it occurred to me that this might just be the single most perfect sport in the universe for Gwyneth to play. She loves to play with friends, has a very competitive nature, and can run non-stop until next Tuesday! The girl has energy to spare. So we went for it and signed her up. Sure we were committing to spending every Saturday now through November with 10,000 other families (and only 40 paved parking spaces) at the ball fields, but if our girl loved playing it, then we would love watching her love it! After 3 practices and one game, the girl is HOOKED. They've only had one game (last weekend was a BYE week) and she's already excited about getting a trophy. The best part is, she's not half bad! She's a good runner, she understands the game and she's supportive of her teammates. She even had one assist on a goal during the game.
Now when I was her age and I played soccer, my brother Scott used to promise to buy me french fries at McDonald's for every goal I scored. So, before the game I made a similar promise only I figured that with inflation over 26 years she should probably get a happy meal. She drove the ball down the field, careful not to let it get to far ahead of her. When she neared the goal she gave it a swift kick and her teammate followed that up with a kick of her own right in the goal. Everyone was cheering. Gwynnie ran back to her side of the field and yelled, "Does that count for a Happy Meal???!!!" It did.

Here she is 30 minutes before the game. No - we did not purposefully coordinate the Gatorade to her uniform, it was just a lucky coincidence.

Gathering with her gal-pals and the coach before the game.

Looking like a star!
The kick-off after the other team scored... they scored a bunch.
The take-away! Here they are trying to get the ball away from their goal (the under 8 league doesn't play with a goalie.) The girl next to her actually ran so much she threw up during the game, but continued playing.So everyone could have a turn on the field and also to give the girls a bit of time to rest, the coach had them in and out of the game. When Gwyn was taking her time out, she watched intently from the sidelines, antsy to get back in the game!


They don't actively keep score, but everyone knew the other team scored more than ours did. Every time a goal was scored, someone cried. Almost every time someone fell, someone cried. There was a lot of crying. Even Mallory cried on the sidelines for one reason or another... but eventually she got over it.
Needless to say, the soccer idea was a screaming success! Unfortunately we will have to miss her game this weekend. Neal's company picnic is at Dollywood that day and her game isn't until 1:30. We did leave the final decision up to Gwyneth since she's the one most effected by it. She thought for long moment and then decided that we should go to Dollywood because Mallory would have more fun doing that and there will more soccer games. It was a proud moment.

It also means there will be more exciting news to report next week!