Our last practice of our first week was today. We had 12 kids show up bringing the total number of participants for the week up to around 16. When a car of parents pulled up (our number one fans from basketball season), the mom driving shouted, "Hey Hope Hope! We got ourselves a team!" The past two days at school several other students took the schedule as well so it is possible that next week we could have a solid 16-18 kids coming to practice.
We walked the 8 or so blocks to the nearest full soccer field today so we could get some shots on goal. One of our 8th graders has actually played goalie for 4 or so years and this was his first practice. If you have to start a team from scratch and you only get one player with experience then goalie would be the spot you would want. If he turns out to be pretty good, then we only have to figure out how to score 2 or 3 goals a game instead of 8 or 9.
When we get to the actual playing (versus just drills), a couple players are beginning to show that they have skills above the rest of our players. A couple of my basketball players have finally showed up and have shown themselves to be pretty good at throw-ins. We'll see if that ends up being a "secret weapon" of sorts. Our only big worry at this point is that we only have $40 raised for uniforms with $50 on the way. Our school budget is not yet finalizes, so I am not sure what we are going to do but I am sure that the kids are excited. One boy described for me the "raw" cleats he was going to get this weekend.
Practices have been slow and are stretching me in my ability to slow down myself and reteach and remodel and repeat things I am saying and showing. This whole season will be just as great of a benefit to me as it will be for the kids.
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