Grant's First Soccer Clinic

Today was Grant's first soccer clinic. He met his new coach and his teammates on the "blue team". He was a little shy at first about sitting down with the player from the Ann Arbor Arsenal that was running his section of the clinic, but given a few minutes to warm up ... he did awesome! He had a blast! We were almost brought to tears watching our little man playing his first organized sport! He has been pretty pumped about playing since Todd took him to get his shin guards, socks and cleats. He had to try them on for me as soon as they got home so that I could see what everything looked like!

He actually listened to instructions while they were called out in each exercise! He impressed us with a lot of his abilities and how he kept at it until he got it. He didn't even get frustrated! That was a huge boost for me since I've worried so much about him going to kindergarten and throwing some sort of fit if he didn't understand something! Phew! They had to come up with different ways to move the ball (besides kicking), different ways to move (besides running), and they learned how to change directions without touching the ball. Grant was really proud of himself when he "mastered" that! We even heard a few "Mommy...Daddy ... did you see that?!?!?"

Grant had a great time ... he scored three goals and reminded us of it several times. The above video shows the goal that resulted in the "clinic coach" saying "Nice Shot #19!" (that's Grant's number by the way .... ). How exciting...and the pride that I felt when I heard that! That's OUR child that they were praising! And, of course, Grant had to make sure that we knew that too!

When we came home, that's all he wanted to do ... play soccer! And, he can't wait until this week's practice on Wednesday or the game! He's so excited about soccer, he has Gavin DEMANDING that he should play too! Maybe next year ....