***Sorry these pictures are sideways or upside down (especially you Mom! HA!) I guess I took them the wrong way with my phone, and I can't figure out how to turn them. In the future, I'm just not going to turn my phone at all when I take pictures!
So Brynn's older cousin Ansley has been playing soccer for awhile, and Brynn loved watching her play. She kept asking me when she could play soccer too, and I kept telling her she had to be older...I thought 4 (in March). I was talking about soccer with some parents from Brynn's class at school, and one of them said he wouldn't start her in spring soccer, especially if she hasn't played before. They start in February, and they practice outside, and it's cold. He said if it's her first time, it might not be the best conditions. He suggested she start playing "indoor" soccer, which is super low-key. The kids show up, they don't have any practices, there are no out of bounds (because it's in Houck Fieldhouse), it's inside so it's comfortable, etc. Technically the team she's on is for Pre-K, but I asked the director about it, and he said she was fine to start a year early. She's a lot smaller than most of the other kids, but she doesn't care.
Tonight is actually her last game (they played 8 games throughout December) and she has had a BLAST. She has come a long way...it seems like every game she does better and better. Honestly, I was just proud of her for getting out there the first game and playing because half of the team just stood on the wall crying and she ran right over to her coach (who she didn't know) and starting "playing."
The first several games she would run around like crazy and not kick the ball very much. My Dad joked "she probably runs more than anyone on her team because she doesn't really run straight to the ball, she runs circles around it!" HA! And of course she played goalie once the first game or two and just stood there and they scored like 4 goals in 5 minutes, but she was still pretty proud of herself.
But over the last couple of games she's started really kicking a lot more and Ryan helped "coach" her at goalie and she did SO good. She would run out to get the ball and stop it and move around. I think she's just getting more and more used to what's going on and getting more comfortable getting in there. Obviously, the bigger kids on her team (most are boys) know how to play a lot more, but I am so impressed with how much she runs and tries. GO GIRL!
Some of the things I want to remember this year are how she runs around the court, when she gets tired during the second half how she would do this hilarious head shaking thing with her pig-tails, getting Simply Swirled after some of her games, watching her play goalie, seeing her huge smile looking up at all of us cheering for her, watching her high-five the other kids after the games, Houck is kind of like a "pit" and you look down on the "court." After the games she will look up at us and say "don't move guys...I"m going to run up all by myself." Then she would come up by herself to where we always sit and we would all cheer like crazy and she would get this funny smile. We've had so much fun watching her, and of course Grandma and Grandpa and Pamaw and Papaw have come to all the games they can and it's been fun cheering her on with everyone.
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The most fun game to watch was when my extended family was in town over Christmas and we all watched her and had the loudest, most hilarious cheering section in the history of Pre-K indoor soccer (thanks Ty! HA!)
Love my little soccer star to pieces!
