Soccer moments

Its so easy as a parent to get into the glorification of our kids. I'll try not to do that too much this post.

Our girl is a really tender hearted sweetie. Her compassion, kindness and patience put me to shame. She is friends with everyone, but she's always had a very tomboyish/imaginative element to her personality. She really enjoys looking for bugs, stomping around in mud and most of the time if you cant see her outside its because she's up a tree.

Jayde never went to preschool and really only had exposure to other children her age at playgroups, bible studies, church & so on. So a couple of years ago we started her playing soccer...for my old club...the Redbacks! :)


This is her very first day at grading....



This was her first match. She wasnt scared of anything. This kid turned out to be in her class at school the next year, and again this year, and is now one of her good friends! :)


(excuse the photo quality, this was pre-DSLR, and during rain)

The first year she had a fantastic team. The parents were lovely, the kids were so nice...and they've been playing together ever since- 3 indoor seasons and now, their 3rd outdoor season. We've made some really treasured friendships....sure makes the 7am setups more bearable when youre doing it with people whose company you enjoy! :) The kids are never coached to win. The first year they concentrated on passing/sharing the ball. The next year they concentrated on teamwork. This year they are getting some more skill development because the club has a professional trainer coaching practice...but our kids are just as proud for making a good pass to each other as they are for kicking a goal.


This was her first game of the season last year. Im really not trying to brag...but we stopped counting after she scored 12 goals. It was almost embarrassing...I guess we fed her a great breakfast that day! I felt so bad for the other team...it doesnt matter how 'feministic' society is getting...boys still hate getting beat by a girl.

In 3 years of playing soccer, she's developed some peculiar styles of play. We call this one the flying kick. Makes me giggle every time! She just gets so elevated!

Last year a guy at our church came back from a year in Columbia where he was involved with youth missionary. He played A LOT of soccer. And at a friendly kick around at church he said to Jayde 'youre fast, but you need some skillllllzzz' (showing off his very deft and dazzling soccer feet).

So she got some. (She gets this from Jacks side of the family...they all have fancy schmanzy footwork it seems- particularly uncle mike).

(K, this doesnt look particularly fancy...it was a fancy dribbling process up the field though. Maybe if we could afford a good telephoto.....)

Did I mention she has no fear? She's like a kamakaze when it comes to tackling. She gets this from me. I still play soccer each week.

Because all the kids on her team are Aug-Dec babies, they end up playing with kids who are a good 8-11 months older than them. We look like little runts most of the time.

Now, we are not proud of this, even though I dont think it was intentionally rough.

After these pics were taken, she got a big lecture about tucking her arms in!

Please note- the boys face is already scrunched up before the tackle!

And she's been trying to stick her arms in ever since. Although its come at the expense of her tongue hanging out (I have enough pictures of this for a whole new post).

She's always fallen down quite a lot. At first we thought it was that she was just uncoordinated. Then we thought it must be shoes that were too small. Then we thought it was a balance problem with her ears. Now we think its all three. She's spent a lot of time on the ground...its comical! But I gotta say, she jumps straight back up again and is back in the game...she is one tough cookie.

She's been smacked in the head/stomach/legs with the ball and gotten straight up.

She's been kicked down.

She's been pushed down (yes, actually pushed)

She's done some dramatic falls...

And some clumsy falls....

And I think sometimes she falls down to catch her breath :P

She is pretty tough, and not intentionally rough. She has never really cried, despite hundreds of falls and the odd ball to the head.

And last Saturday, while playing a particularly rough team, she got an elbow to the mouth. No one else saw it except me (of course!) and she started bawling and heading straight for the sideline. Their coach basically implied that I was lying. But really...do fat lips come out of no-where? Hmph.

(you cant actually see the blood that was inside her mouth...but it was messy. This is after an ice cream- which I maintain still does heal all wounds).

This was our first genuinely unpleasant experience in 3 years of soccer....6 'seasons' if you count all the indoor ones. And I was so proud of her for getting back in the game after just a couple of minutes.

She is a little missionary with her team, she prays and talks to them about Jesus. And they are really nice kids....who knows what impact our family will have on theirs in years to come? We have been able to use so many of her soccer games to help teach her about biblical principles. Again, a whole other post...or 10.

She wants to play soccer at the Olympics. (Of course, this is in combination to flying to Mars with NASA and owning her own rocket by the time she's 18). There is just one major problem with that.... Jack and I might have a heated discussion about which country she should play for!