September 28, 2018

So, this picture popped up on my screen saver.  The picture is blurry, but you can see how determined he was.  He was like this with most things.  But when it came to soccer he played hard.  When he was 10 Branden and I thought maybe he could be good in this sport.  So, we made the decision to change leagues.  I ran the one he was in, in our small town.  We moved him to an incorporated YSO league.  The first game was brutal.  And we thought that maybe he wasn’t as good as we thought.  His coach said, “give him a couple of games and you will see a different player.”  That coach was right.  Coach Mike showed him how to play the game and love it.  We are forever indebted to him for that.   That was the year we joined our first soccer family.  The Strikers are a special group of boys.  They are growing into good young men.  They are still teenage boys who probably do dumb things, but those boys will always be my soccer boys and family.  I can’t wait to see what they do. 

The next group we joined was the Safford Bulldogs.  That was another difficult decision to make.  We live in Pima and were and are Roughriders.  He loved that school, but half way through 7^th grade we decided to move to Safford, so he could play soccer.  Pima doesn’t have a team.  It was rough, and he sometimes thought he made the wrong choice.  But then 9^th grade came, and he started playing with JV and Varsity.  He was where he belonged.  I loved seeing him play.  Most of the boys on his Striker team were now on the Bulldog team.  We also added the rest of the team to our ever-growing soccer family.  The day after Carsen died this team came to our home.  Tears and hugs were given.  To this day when any of the boys sees me they come and ask how I am and if I need anything they are there.  They are incredible respectful, and I truly love these boys.  It will be hard to watch the season and not see my boy, but I do look forward to seeing them play.