This fall he had decided after 14 years of playing soccer it was time to hang up his soccer cleats his senior year and run cross country instead... he LOVES LOVES to run and after having a rough couple of seasons on the varsity team this seemed like a good option for him.. This posed some complications he was already named captain of the soccer team and was a very hard decision for him but it was his decision and after much dialogue did I say MUCH he went to the soccer coach and let him know he was not going to play this season and thanked him for the opportunity. His stance was he would be one of only 3 other seniors on the team and the team was going to be young and wasn't going to do well, plus he is a runner and he didn't want to risk getting hurt and ruining his track season. It was going to be a rebuilding year for the soccer team and it was not something he was geared up for again being a bit tainted from the previous 2 years and not wanting to be injured. I felt like he could make a change in the soccer team and he is a great leader and if he could get them to play like a team they could do wonders. One of his track coaches and teachers talked with him as well stating the soccer team needed him and after much thought and more conversations he had a change of heart.
We were right he made an immense change in the soccer team and they certainly needed him. The coach said in all of his years of coaching soccer this was the most fun year of coaching. They started off doing all kinds of team building actvities and they played as a team and their record showed. They were not the most talented team they didn't have the best and biggest players but they were a team and they won their conference with a 9-0 record and their season record was 19-2-1. I could not be more proud of the team and Christian.
There was such a sweet spirit about the team and you could feel it at every game and it all started with this:
they would pray before every game. This is a rare rare moment in sports to have a team so united, so brave to be willing to all kneel in prayer in front of their peers, opponents, and spectators and ask God the Eternal Father to bless their efforts. See the pink around their shin guards it was for breast cancer. It was such a fabulous group of young men and I miss having them hanging around and the pile of 22 pairs of teenage boys shoes by the front door, track starts soon so I am sure I will have a new pile of shoes soon!!!
The team aside Christian played almost every minute of every game(as the coach said he was the work horse of the team), made the Dream Team, the Saginaw Valley Team(voted by all the coaches in the league) and by his team mates best mid fielder.
I know he was very leary of playing this season but he has not regretted playing having his last touch on a soccer ball with a great group of young men.
1 comment:
Wow, great job, Christian!! You must feel so proud as a mom, Julia!
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