The Saratoga Sting

Noah is our sports kid. He wanted to start playing soccer before he was three. Since he turned four, he has been on nine city league teams. He loves it.
It's been fun watching him improve. This spring we decided it was time to start competitive soccer. All summer he was up at 7:00 on Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings so that he could condition with his team. He had practices on Tuesday and Thursday nights. When the season started I could really see the improvement in his ability to handle the ball and run the field.
Noah isn't super competitive. He loves to play and won't freak out if they don't win. His ability to keep a level head during a game resulted in the coach making him team captain. Besides being able to tell the other players where to go & what to do during the game he also got to do this:
The Sting finished the season with 5 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie. Noah doesn't always agree with the final score. Usually on the drive home he'll award and take away goals as he deems necessary. For being a first year team, I think they did really well. We had a couple of hard losses but also a few blow outs of our own. I think the last team we played will think twice before they make us sit facing the sun. At least they didn't have to shade their eyes to watch our team obliterate them 9-0.
This season's games have been more entertaining too. Soccer is so much better to watch when the players understand the sport. They all actually know which goal is ours, can play their position (for the most part), & they even pass the ball around. Sometimes they run a play and it works. It's been amazing. The funniest game though was when both teams and the referees were wearing yellow jerseys. That can get very confusing. There was only one thing to do and it was pretty amusing. Good thing it was still warm.
I am a miserable soccer photographer. We don't keep track of how many goals he scores, he scored plenty, but I only have video of one. A penalty kick which, even then, I barely got.


We have a little break before we start up indoor soccer this winter. It is time consuming and I am dreading the driving, but Noah loves it too much to stop.