End of another Season

We have just completed another season of soccer. It is amazing how far she has come from her first season. Bayleigh seems to finally grasp the concept. I personally think soccer is the most contradicting sport you can possibly put your kid in. We spend all day telling our kids to share and play nice and yet once they get on the field you encourage them to push, shove and steel from the opposite team. This is Bayleigh's 3rd season playing soccer and the first one where I actually feel she is a better player than she was going in. We finally decided to switch leagues this time. We went from a competitive club league to a private church league and it has made a HUGE difference. I finally feel like I have gotten my monies worth. Club leagues are all about winning. They allow the coaches to pick who they coach which in turn allows them to "stack" the teams (only pick and play the best) and im sorry but at the age of 5 no one should be playing favorites. How is my child going to learn the fundamentals of the sport if she is never allowed to play? The old league also did no trophies, awards or celebrations to end the season. There was no team camaraderie at all. The kids barely knew each others names and the parents had no reasons to  converse. So needless to say after two consecutive summer seasons there we decided to search for a new league. There are 4 different league options in our area: 1 club (BTDT), 2 park and 1 church. After reviewing the prices, schedules and a 30 min phone conversation with the director of the church league we decided to go with them and we couldn't have been happier. The price was right but on top of that they do evaluations on the kids (to prevent team stacking), they hold coaches trainings and the entire league is volunteer based. There have end of the year family events and award ceremonies not to mention they give tons to the community. Definitely a program I am happy to have my kids be apart of.

**In case you were confused by the two different uniforms Upward doesn't issue 50 different uniform colors nor do they allow the teams to pick team names....they do it all for you.... Every child is issued a double sided jersey and if you are the home team you where blue and away team wears green. They are also issued a team name. This made for a less stressful season. No fighting with my kid cause she was the red team or blue team insead of the pink team.

For fun I thought it would be cute to try to find a picture of her first soccer season: 

Its crazy how much she has grown from then huh?

All in all it was a great season...next up...Cheerleading...wish me luck!