Kevin's playing indoor soccer now. Why he's playing is a bit of a story, since, well, competitive soccer passed Kevin by a few years ago.
During second grade, Kevin was asked to play indoor soccer with a group of Okemos kids. Soccer seemed to be the be all and end all for this group, and Kevin was, if not the worst on the team, close to it. He improved a lot, had fun, and that was fine.
That group of kids, from the Score-pions, en masse, tried out for the 'travel' team for Okemos the next year. Kevin tried out also, and, we weren't surprised when he didn't make it, they were going to take the top 11 or 12 kids, 30 tried out, and Kevin's many things, but, he's not the fastest, the most aggressive, or the most athletic kid out there (all but two of the 9 or 10 Score-pions made the team).
That fall, Kevin played with a soccer club, the Chill. Good coaching, and Kevin improved a lot. The whole goal of this exercise was to see if Kevin's skills would improve enough to try out again. And, there would be two travel teams, so, there were 22 openings. Due to mismanagement issues, the Chill team fell apart, and, that June, Kevin tried out again for the Okemos club, and, again, did not make either of the two teams. This time, it made no sense to us, I watched Kevin's tryout and thought he did way better than the year before. Never was able to get the coach to explain why he didn't make it, and found out later through rumors and gossip that the coach of the 2nd team (and we knew he wouldn't make that 1st team...but thought he had a shot at the 2nd) had selected his team not on who were the best soccer players, but, instead, on who were the best athletes (he took players who had never played soccer before, for example).
So, Kevin's adventure with trying out for travel soccer came to an end. Kevin still plays rec soccer, and, in that setting (with the better players in club soccer or on the travel teams) he does really well. I'm proud of Kevin that he's kept playing soccer at the rec level, because, after the sour tryout experiences, he could have quit at anytime and nobody would have said anything.
Kevin's 'return' to rec soccer began with kids a year older than Kevin. His friend, Ashton, who lives up the street and is one year older (or, better said, one grade ahead) plays soccer and his dad coaches the team, so, it was good for us to have Kevin play with them. Even up a grade level in rec, Kevin would do fairly well. He's always had a good head for where to play at and who to pass to, so, that's been good. Kevin would play outdoors with that team, and they also played indoors, and Kevin did that too.
Ashton played rec soccer while he, also, played for the Okemos travel team. Soon enough, Ashton only played travel soccer, and Kevin returned to his grade level and played rec soccer. And that was fine. Kevin still wanted to play indoor soccer, so, we signed him up for a house team, and, he was asked with one of his friends to join a group of kids from Grand Ledge and form a team. So, Okemos Kevin has a Grand Ledge jersey and played with them for about a year and did well. That too, came to an end, and we thought indoor soccer was done.
Ashton's dad moved on and became the coach of the Ashton's travel team, and also took some of those kids and played indoors. Last year, when he was short one or two players, he asked if Kevin wanted to play for a game or two, so, Kevin trotted out with the Figs (Ashton's Dad lets the kids name the teams he's on, so, you get funny names like the Fightin' Figs) and played. The kids he plays with (and against), again, are a year older, but, this time, they're even better, because all of them play travel soccer.
This year, Kevin was asked to play on the team full time (mainly because not all of the members of team wanted to play indoors). Kevin holds his own out there, he certainly doesn't embarrass himself and he makes some plays that are really good (passing, mostly). But, he doesn't have the footwork that the kids who play soccer 3x a week year-round do, and, he's younger, so, he can look bad at times.
But he gets full points for me for trying. Most rec sports phase out in Okemos after 8th grade, so, for sports like soccer and basketball, I'm sure we're seeing the end of Kevin's competitive days in those sports. We mention to Kevin that he might want to think about sports that he has a chance to play in high school (lacrosse is one, tennis is another, but the Okemos team is really really good, 4 state championships in the last 5 years, so, we'll see, and other sports like cross country and water polo that he hasn't even tried yet).
Kevin had two indoor soccer games today. The Figs tied both today, 3-3. Both games were against teams they had lost to previously, so, ties are a good thing, especially the second game, when they only had one sub.
