May 27 - Academy Tryouts

It's the end of May and we are in full swimming and 'end of the school year' mode. So, it was a little strange for the kids to put on their shin guards and cleats for fall soccer tryouts. Yes, you read that correctly-FALL soccer tryouts happened this week. Julia tried out for the girls Academy team and Luke tried out for the boys Jr. Academy team. These teams have professional soccer coaches (instead of parents like me hehe) and teach the kids skills and how to play the game. There are weekend games and tournament opportunities. Julia loves soccer (she actually seems to love pretty much every sport) and really wanted to try out. I signed Luke up for tryouts as well since we would already be at the field. I figured he'd have more fun running around with his friends than sitting in a chair with me. The tough thing about Luke is that while he's very athletic and great at a lot of things..it's a challenge to get him to do activities.

Every week before soccer practice this winter/spring he claimed he hated soccer and didn't want to go to practice. And then lo and behold-once we got to the field, guess who the happiest kid there was? I've learned not to pressure him on sports type stuff, he'll dig his heels in. So, I told him he could try out if he wanted to..and surprisingly he did on Monday. The Jr. Academy age bracket is a combination of kids born in 2009 and 2010. He was one of the youngest and definitely the smallest kid on the field. But he did great-he's extremely fast and has natural defensive talent. He decided he didn't want to try out again Tuesday and was content watching Julia. We found out yesterday that both of them made the team!! I'm not sure that's we'll sign Luke up for the Jr. Academy (it's not as fun as the recreation league) but we're very happy that he gave it a try.