Henry's soccer spring '10

Henry had another amazing year with his soccer team, The Jayhawks. He has been playing since he turned four years old, in the spring and fall, and it has been so fun to see the progression.

When he started, the kids just ran around in clumps sort of following the ball (or just watching it go by). As they started figuring it out, whoever got the ball would try to kick it into the goal. Next they started working on moving it down the field. The coaches were right there with them directing them this way and that. This year the kids moved up to a bigger field and the coaches were no longer allowed on the field. They had to figure out how to handle a goalie and how to pass the ball to their teammates.

Henry was on the youngest team in the league, but they still managed to win half their games! We were so proud of those little guys. It seems around age seven a lot of these kids really hit a growth spurt, so some of our opposing teams looked like giants next to our kids. Our boys and girls still got right in there and played aggressively all season. We even had a couple of quite memorable games played in the pouring rain. We're hoping that taught them perseverance (or something at least, we don't want to imagine that was for nothing!). It really was fun to see the strides all the kids have made in the past few years.

Henry had a good sized fan club on the sidelines of every game. His grandparents came for a few games, our friends Beth and Austie made it out to a few games (Ingrid, where were you???), his sister, brother and mom and dad made it out to every one. Jonah is an ever-faithful fan, paying attention to every play and shouting words of encouragement to Henry (and his buddy Ian, of course). Bridget enjoyed the games, but she didn't watch much. There was always somebody there to keep her company, and at many of the games it was Daxton. She and Dax are very close in age and they had a lot of fun together on the sidelines this year.

Go Jayhawks!

(L-R: Coach David, Jase, Ian, Henry, Dillon, Cody, Brock, Kaylee, Bella, Tyler, Coach Lyle, missing Brett)

It was a great season! Henry is a really good soccer player and he loves the sport. Can't wait to see what next season has in store for us! :)