Congrats Eva!

Eva Diva made the Layton Strikers soccer comp team this last week and we are so excited for her! Last year was her first year of soccer, so I think she felt a little outleagued at tryouts and was telling us she didn't want to do it because the girls were better than her. We told her that if she didn't make it, no big deal. She can do her AYSO team next year and try out again if she wants. If she did make it, it would be an awesome opportunity for her because she would get really good if she was training with others that had a higher skill level than her and give her tons of experience. When the coach called after the practice to tell her she had made the team, we could tell she was really excited because she started smiling and then tried to hide her excitement by burying her smile in the pillows on the bed. We went out to dinner to celebrate with her on Saturday night. We're so proud of you, Eva!

Eva is such a headstrong kid that even though all of her friends were playing soccer the last 3 years, she refused to play because she couldn't use her hands!?? What?? That was her reasoning and she wasn't going to budge. I'm still not quite sure what made her change her mind...It certainly wasn't her mom or dad.

We have had so much fun watching her games and seeing her improve between seasons and her coach Bill Harvey was fantastic!. She is really fast, scores a lot of goals kicking with her left foot, but she still need the strategies and skills that many of the other girls on the team have. This should be a great opportunity for her to learn from her peers and improve quite a bit. She is a quick study and I think she will do really well.

Her coach has a great philosophy about making this a positive experience and helping them to improve skills, but not having soccer be their life. They have other things they want to do,too. He will only do a couple of tournaments each year and keep practices to once a week. I don't want soccer every other night(either does she) and then there are all the issues with kids being overscheduled and missing out on downtime to play and to just be imaginative. I also don't want to be a crazy (crazier) mom driving my kids around all hours of the day to lessons. I think we miss the point of it all... To much time away from family. That being said, I think this is a great opportunity for her to get the flavor of comp soccer without having her completely absorbed into it. I'm so glad that there are coaches out there with the same values. It's refreshing. The tricky part is balancing it all out when they want to do so many things......I don't think it is easy. Hopefully it is fun along the way as we figure it all out!