Soccer Season!

 Elizabeth began playing league soccer again, and man, am I glad she picked the sport back up. She is on a recreational team which is right up her alley. There is competition, but the girls playing are mostly playing just for fun. 

The two years that she has taken off since last playing this sport seem to have been good for her. Her last team was pretty toxic and that was not good for her psyche. She is a pretty sensitive kiddo and being in that environment was damaging to her for a lot of reasons. She needed some time to recover from that and decide if soccer was something that she wanted to continue playing. 

While I am glad that she is playing organized sports, I am more glad that she is doing so on her own terms. It makes it so much more enjoyable for us all. 

Her first game was last weekend and her team won 3-2. It was a good game with good competition. Both teams seemed to be pretty evenly matched which always makes for good viewing. She started and played until she was asked to be subbed out. Taking two years off was good for her mind, but her body is taking a little bit of time to get used to running around for two 40 minute halves again. 

Sarah came to support Elizabeth which has to be hard for her as Sarah was a tremendously talented soccer player in her time. I know that she misses the sport very much. I am proud of Sarah for the maturity it takes to be able to support her siblings at something that breaks her own heart because her body no longer allows her to play. 

The game weather was sunny and hot. Sarah and I miscalculated how hot it would be and we both paid for that by not coming to the game prepared. Bobby is the assistant coach on Elizabeth's team which is so cool because he is a really, really good coach. It is nice to see them share in this experience together. 

Elizabeth is AMAZING at throw ins. I was trying to get an action shot of her, but I could not. My camera needs some repairs and no longer focuses in time for action shots. (At least most of the time.)