Abundantly Blessed: Soccer Highlights

Cody and Jaden played their third season of soccer in the fall. Both boys are starting to feel very comfortable with the sport, and they are such fun little players to watch! Their team name was the Jags (short for Jaguars).

The boys' cousin Ryan also played soccer for the same league but on a different team. We were excited about the possibility of playing against Ryan's team, but unfortunately the match-up never happened. On one particular Saturday, the boys' games were at the same time on two different fields, so we could pop back and forth between the games, at least!

The boys had a new coach this year-- Coach Kyle. We appreciated all that Jaden and Cody learned under his guidance. One of the coach's goals was to start having the team learn the various positions of soccer so that the team wasn't always playing "herd-ball"! After the first couple of games, Coach Kyle pegged Cody and Jaden as strong defensive players and started playing them as defenders. Both boys were very good at watching for the ball whenever it would come across midfield. Their power kicks would often clear the ball all the way across the field out of trouble. The boys both seemed to like this position well enough (not quite as much running around!), but they both enjoyed when the coach gave them at least one quarter to play forward and try to score goals! ;)

Coach Kyle emphasized a lot of passing drills and techniques in practice. The team didn't fully incorporate passing as much as they should, but it was nice to see the players at least occasionally attempting to pass during the games! During one game, we were so pleased to see Jaden take the ball for a breakaway down the field and then when he neared the goal, pass the ball off to Cody for a goal attempt. I even got a picture of the play! After the game, when we complimented Jaden for his nice pass, he grumpily told us, "I didn't even mean to do that! The ball was going too fast and got away from me, and then Cody took it!" Ha! So much for our stellar twin-to-twin play!

Both boys showed a lot of growth throughout the season-- most particularly in the area of ball control. They both learned to dribble the ball much more successfully and keep it in-bounds down the field. They were confident little players who weren't afraid to step in and be aggressive. Jaden and Cody both typically ended the game with 1 or 2 goals apiece. We loved watching our little Jags!

JADEN

Throughout the season, Jaden had a powerful kick and a smart sense of where to position himself on the field. Coach Kyle often called on Jaden to do the team's corner kicks and sideline throw-ins. Here are some pics of Jaden in action.

CODY

Cody, too, developed a powerful kick over the course of the season. You can tell in the pics below how much he put his entire body into his kicks! He was an attentive defender and did a good job of timing his advances against the opposing team. Also, after begging his coach for multiple games, Cody got to play goalie for one quarter of a game. He didn't get a lot of action, but he stopped everything that came his way!

After every game, Coach Kyle would tell the team how proud he was of them and would highlight positive aspects of how they played. Then, he'd always end with a special Jags cheer.

The Jags were a strong team and stayed undefeated up until the very last game. What a fun team to be a part of!

Adley enjoyed being outside every Saturday to cheer on her big brothers, but she wasn't a big fan of sitting still for the entire game. Her favorite aspects of the games were eating snacks...