Following the Ruhls: Dean's First Soccer Game

A friend told us about the Searcy Youth Soccer Association and the great program that they run every spring and fall. I did a bit of research and discovered their Facebook page. Registration for the fall season was open and kids born in 2015 are allowed to play! I signed Dean up to be a player and Patrick up to be a coach! Not only would it be a fun family activity and learning experience for Dean, but it would also be a good way to meet families with boys around D's age. Our good friends, Tim and Tracy, bought Dean a soccer goal and some shin guards and we began to practice in our backyard.

Check out this awesome uniform!

Practicing in our backyard.

Our self-proclaimed "soccer rocker."

Playing with Grandma Gail and Buck.

Kick!

Dean and Buck are about to score a goal!
Dean's uniform is the smallest they had, a youth extra small, but still way too big!

Soon after that we had a coaches meeting and then our team practice. It was fun to meet the other 5 boys on the team, Dean is the youngest! Several of them seemed super shy and didn't want to come out onto the field and kick the ball around.

Practice!

Patrick was out of town for the first game on September 8th and I tried to coach it alone. It was chaotic. Kids were running all over or wouldn't detach from their parents to come onto the field. One little boy on the other team clearly had played before and stole the the ball from my little tater tots EVERY TIME. I never played soccer; although I did sit around and watch (well... I was usually sitting in a fold-up chair reading actually) 5 years of my sister playing soccer. I didn't know what I was doing. Unfortunately, the other team's coach didn't either. After half an hour we called it a game and went to eat snow cones! Hopefully the kids had a little bit fun and will come again next Saturday! Enjoy some of the fun photos and videos.

Ready to play!

Thankfully we had a great cheering section that was able to help Dean when I was trying to coach the other players too. Tim is shown here encouraging Dean. Kevin, Jessy, Maddy, and Hadley Stewart were there too.