A soccer dad is born
Here's Guest Dad Joe Burris on Father's Day Friday:
For years I’ve told folks that my favorite sport is college basketball. Not anymore. I’m proud to say that instead I have discovered the finest, most practical sport ever invented, one that any parent would be senseless not to embrace.
It’s called kids’ soccer!
I could practically genuflect before the inventor of this panacea of outdoor activities.
I took my 4-year-old daughter to her first practice last week, and though she initially did not warm up to the sport, within no time she took to it with passion.
What fueled her excitement? The same reason why parents like me love it.
Kids run!
And they run, and run and run. And then they take water breaks and run some more. They chase after balls that are knee high. They plop on the soft ground and get back up dashing again. They chase after each other. They frolic joyfully even when they fail to kick the ball.
And all the while, they are surrounded by parents who are all but salivating at what all that exercise will lead to:
Instant sleep at bedtime.
The great thing about kids’ soccer is that it draws parents who aren’t ashamed to admit that they enjoy the sport, in part, because it tires kids out. As we watched them, and occasionally took part in the practice by running with them, many parents uttered, “We’ll get some sleep tonight!”
There weren’t many fundamentals taught that day, and who cares? No one’s looking at a 4-year-old and thinking Diego Maradona.
Yet one of the more intriguing drills was kicking the ball into a pylon and knocking it over. The kids got a kick out of that.
Another one was that they had to kick their mom or dad with the ball while chasing us. How fast did we parents run while being chased? Put it this way: Ever see someone trying to catch an elevator before it closes?
I look forward to when the fundamentals do kick in, and all that running will be bolstered by technique. In the meantime, when anyone asks how exciting is kids’ soccer, I proudly offer the same refrain.
It’ll put you to sleep.
