Soccer & Josh

One of the hardest things about moving this time has been Josh's inability to find his soccer groove. When we moved to Las Cruces his soccer transition was smooth and easy. We quickly found a soccer family and he found teammates that became like brothers. It was the perfect fit.

Moving here has been a lot harder. There were over 122 kids that tried out for 4 soccer teams at the local high school. Varsity and three JV teams. Josh is not used to playing with kids who come from money and who have that stereotypical snobby rich kid attitude. Not everyone is like that here, but there are more kids like that than not. They don't seem to want to work hard for anything and feel that everything should be handed to them. Josh doesn't view soccer in this way and it has been unnerving and annoying to him that these scrubs (his term, not mine) think that they are above the team mentality and being coached. He doesn't feel comfortable around kids with that type of mentality. I don't blame him as I don't feel comfortable around adults who act that way.

There were over 40 kids cut from tryouts. Josh ended up making a team. Varsity and JV are solely upperclassman. Sophomores and Freshman make up the bottom two team being comprised of JV Red and JV Blue. (Why is the color Blue always denoted as the "worst" team? I don't get it. I think the color blue is an outstanding color, but anway...) Josh is a starter on the JV Red team, so in essence he made the top underclassman team and earned a starting spot. Each roster is pretty full with about 22 kids per team.

He doesn't really like playing for the high school and cannot wait for the season to be over so that he can play club ball again. (Although he is quickly learning which teams he doesn't want to tryout for based on where these snobby kids play.)

In this respect, I am grateful that we are only going to be here for a little while as soccer so far has been no fun. I feel badly for him, but I know that playing in all of these different parts of the country will make him a better player overall.

Tonight is his first game. I am looking forward to watching him play ball as it is one of my most favorite things to do. Hopefully, this season will get better for him. If it doesn't, then this too shall pass.