Sean's Soccer Field
The place where the Vancouver Tornadoes lace 'em up and play out the human drama of athletic competition every Saturday. The people you see in the drawing are actually parents and spectators on the field between ours and the treeline on the horizon. Visualize Sean's team in the foreground-a tumultuous, throbbing mass of 7-year old humanity rumbling back and forth from one goal to the other. If this were an Andy Capp cartoon, they would be a big churning cloud of dust with the occasional foot or fist sticking out and little stars radiating out with squiggly lines. Actually, that description is becoming less accurate as the season progresses. The boys are actually figuring out the game and are beginning to pass the ball and be aware of some of the other small complexities of the game.

In fact, Sean scored his first goal today.



Look at that. Takes my breath away. Thought I was going to cry when he scored his first goal. Not because I'm a frustrated middle-aged Dad trying to live vicariously through my children and not because I'm a hyper-competitive sports Nazi who pushes athletic achievement at the cost of all else. I was just proud of him for sticking with it. We have been extremely supportive, but we've let him find his own way. I haven't pulled out the riding crop and the jodhpurs and silver Patton helmet (well, not with Sean and not in the context of soccer, but that's another post), but Sean's mind has, shall I say not always had soccer (or t-ball or basketball or any other of the sports he's played) front and center. And that's fine. And today it was all worth it because he stuck with it and scored his first goal. It was also nice that the Yankees are out of the playoffs and that Alex Rodriguez went 1 for 14 and had a batting average of .071 in the ALDS. But that's just icing.