Soccer mom=Super mom!

At least I felt like I had to be SuperMom sometimes to accomplish all that needed to be done with soccer this year. Hillary, Carter, and Whitney all played this fall and the soccer here is taken very seriously. Each coach has to get a sponser that pays for the kids uniforms. No generic flip-it-inside-out to change colors here. The kids had their names printed on the jerseys and Carter's even did the matching shorts. Practices were at least 2-3 times a week per kid. Most were at the same location so I could run from one field to the next as needed. Once games started, they were again on the same field, 3-4 nights a week depending on who was playing. Saturdays were usually 3 games, sometimes overlapping. It truly got insane! Fortunately once the games started, there were no more practices unless it was a bye week.

Hillary immediately picked up a nickname from her coach. Not long legs or anything like that. She got called Utah. Our family became known as Utah 5 (not sure where the 5 comes from since there are 6 of us). I don't think I ever heard Hillary's name, it was always, "get over there Utah, chase that ball Utah, control those long legs Utah!" Hillary didn't mind though, she's proud of her Utah roots. She was usually a forward or a halfback, but is a fairly timid player so she'd run, but not get into the middle of it all very often. She almost scored a few times, but was just inches away. Their team did very well, almost undefeated, then sadly lost the first round of the tournament. It was a lot of fun to watch her play.

Carter had a blast playing. He is an every position kid. It didn't matter where his coach told him to go, he was wherever the ball was. He had to be the center of the action. He never did score a goal either, but had some great assists. No fun nicknames for him though. Just Carter.

Whitney was a little fireball on the field. She was on a co-ed 3-5 year old team. She had some speed and had no fear about getting in the middle of it all. She could outrun most of the boys and had a good controlled kick. In her last game she was the only one on her team that even scored and she got about 8 goals.

Then come the team parties. It's not just a quick little trophy or ribbon. No, they go all out to celebrate. Carter's was a place called CiCi's pizza. It's a buffet that's not too bad. They all ate and got nice trophies with their names engraved. Hillary's was a little bigger. They went to Fun Expedition (sorta like Chuck E. Cheese) for dinner and an hour of games. Then trophies and each coach talked about each player a little. Whitney's will be held next week at the bowling alley. The only down side is we have to pay for each of these parties and the trophies. In the end, parties and trophies will have cost about $100. Yikes! And now we begin basketball. Should be less stressful. Only two kids will be playing, but they are at different locations. I just hope they don't overlap games. It has been a fun season!