Caleb and Dallin have enjoyed playing soccer this spring. Both boys have done really well and have been on winning teams. Because of this, they often share their scores with pride and compete with each other on personal stats. It's been fun for me to watch and listen.The other week, however, the boys played some difficult teams and were humbled a bit. Their teams were playing a neighboring community called Elk Ridge. This is a smaller community with fewer children. They have to combine their age groups in order to field teams so Caleb's 2nd grade team played their K-2nd and Dallin's 4-5 year old team played against their pre-K team. Caleb's team struggle, but ended up with a tie 2 - 2. Dallin was in the middle of his game, but getting increasingly frustrated by his failed attempts at scoring. At half time he wanted to go play at the park instead of finishing his game. I told him his team needed him and he'd have to finish his game before going to the park. He then sat down next to Caleb to take a drink. Their conversation went as follows:
Dallin: This team is way hard.
Caleb: Yeah.
Dallin: Their so fast.
Caleb: Last week was more fun. Did you know I scored three goals and my team scored thirteen?
Dallin: You told me already.
Caleb: We were doing so awesome my coach said we'd get a milk shake if we score just ten goals and we scored thirteen and so we got a milk shake.
Dallin: I KNOW!
(So at this point I'm thinking Dallin doesn't need to hear any more of Caleb's bragging about glory days and I'm about to intercept with some motivational advice when their conversation takes a turn).
Caleb: Last week we did really good, but did you know this week we almost got beaten by a bunch of kindergartners?
Dallin: Really?
Caleb: Yeah kindergartners.
Dallin: That stinks.
Caleb: Yeah, so sometimes you do your best and you score lots of goals and get a milkshake and sometimes when you are doing your best you almost get beat by kindergartners. You just gotta still try hard and do your best anyways. So good luck!
Dallin: Thanks
(Dallin runs off with renewed energy and goes on to score a goal that half).
