Yayyy, we finally found a soccer team that kind of fits with our ‘hectic’ schedule here in Progreso! By hectic, I mean something that does not interfere with laying in the hammock or our siestas – which are quite often the same thing.
We are playing on a field just outside of Progreso on the road to Chixculub by a newly built park. The field is quite large and has a nice shaded section for the families to watch.
Evan and Noah actually did pretty good, considering they have not played soccer for more than a year, and the coach seems to be very serious. He has them doing all kinds of exercises and drills which definitely keeps them on their toes. The kids really seem to take him seriously as well as the ‘castigo’ for not doing things is to run a lap around the field – and it is HOT! The boys seem to be fitting in quite nicely and are actually looking forward to playing in games. Sunday is their first game but we did not have all the paperwork completed on time so the boys cannot play this game but are ready now to play in the next one. Not only did they need their birth certificate, their passport, 6 passport pictures, their FM2’s, and the registration fee, they also needed a signed letter from their school with full color pictures on them with two different stamps and signed by their teacher stating they were who they say they are with the stamp and signature overlapping the original photograph… Yeah, we didn’t get everything to them in time to be officially registered to play in the first game but we are now ready for the next game!
Noah is one of the youngest on the team but seems to fit in very well. One of the drills the other day was to kick a penalty shot and score on the goalie. If you didn’t score you had to run a lap… Not very many children scored on their first attempt so there was a lot of running. When they lined up for their second attempt – Noah backed up to center field to start his approach. The parents all got a kick out of this as they had never seen this type of approach before. The goalie probably could have walked out and got to the ball before Noah kicked it! But the goalie waited patiently as Noah began his run from center… still waiting… still waiting… Noah’s little legs pumping away… parents cheering for him… still waiting… then he kicks the ball… the ball starts rolling towards the goalie…the goalie dive’s for it… and is too early! the slow rolling ball rolls over top of the goalie into the middle of the net! The parents all went wild:) lot of comments that I didn’t understand but they sure got a kick out of the little guy. The coach couldn’t believe it. The goalie couldn’t believe it and off he went on his lap around the soccer field with the parents all yelling at him for missing the ball that was kicked by one of the smallest guys on the team! It was one of those times you just had to be there to really enjoy it.
Evan against his friend for the second drill.
Evan also made quite an impression on his first day. The coach set up four pilons in a square and then had two players fight for the ball and the player who kicked the ball through a set of pylons got a point. Well Evan somehow got paired up with a bigger boy and I thought it would be over quickly. However, somehow Evan managed to keep getting the ball away from the other boy and managed a few miraculous last second saves as he jumped in front of the ball. The funny part was this drill went on until somebody got a point… most kids lasted about 1 minute before somebody scored. But Evan and his partner lasted almost 10 minutes! This was amazing because it was about 35 degrees out there and they were sweating away and could barely walk, let alone run by the end of it. Evan had a couple of great chances early on, but hit the pylons both times! The parents were cheering for him but he just couldn’t get the ball between the pylons. These two kids ran all over the field as they tried to steal the ball from each other and then kick it in between the pylons (which were about 6 feet apart). Finally Evan managed to outlast the other boy and slowly dribbled the ball through the pylons. They both collapsed were they were with the coach having a good laugh!
I am very excited to have the boys playing soccer and can’t wait for them to learn some new skills!
The soccer fees with this team are: 150 pesos ($11.50 CDN) for both boys Registration and then 50 pesos ($3.83 each player) each month. Because they are brothers we only had to pay one registration fee…. They will have games in nearby towns that we will have to pay a little bit for the bus. They will have to pay about 150 pesos for their uniforms as well.
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