soccer star?

Saturday marked the season opener for our local recreational soccer league. Starting at 8 am Saturday morning literally half the town trudged out to the soccer fields with their collapsible chairs, water bottles and cameras in tow. Parents, grandparents and siblings all came to see their very own soccer stars in action. We were no different.

This year, Hannah is our soccer star playing in the Girls Under 5 bracket for a team called the Gators (so creatively named for the color of their jerseys). She is on a team with 7 other little girls her age, one of whom happens to be her good friend Paige whose parents Jeff and I know from our days at Baylor.


Hannah has been telling us that she wanted to play soccer for months now and so naturally, when the big day came, she was super-excited. And, we were excited for her. So excited, in fact, that we didn't realize her first game had a 12 pm start time. Our excitement dwindled significantly as we trudged the half mile from the parking lot to the field in 95 degree temperatures with 100% humidity (no, I am not exaggerating).


Nonetheless, Jeff and I just knew that Hannah was going to have a great game. After a bit of warm up time, the girls took the field. Hannah was chosen to make the first kick off. She did great! She kicked, she ran, she kicked again. Soccer at its finest!



Then, about a minute and a half into the game, the other team took control of the ball and somehow Hannah got hit in the leg with the ball. At this point, the heat, the frustration and the pain all got the better of our little soccer star.



Poor Hannah had to learn the hard lesson that the other team will, in fact, try and take the ball away from you. She was so angry and upset that she didn't stop crying until we left for home and her thumb never left her mouth, even when she did go back onto the field. Fingers crossed for a better game next week!