Ben played his first soccer game of the season today. He did sooooo great!

 

The teams are four on four this year. 1 goalie and 3 players. Halves are 25 minutes long. Parents take turns acting as refs. Coaches are all volunteer.

 

Because of Ben's size (70 lbs, 4'5" tall, 97+% for his age), Coach has him playing defensively. Hang in the back, be the guy to get the ball when the forward players are bogged down. And he seems pretty good at it! This year we got to see him really getting into the game (including body checking two other players to get the ball. Unfortunately, one of them was on his own team...). He ran fast and hard and did a really good job watching the ball.

 

One of the boys made a goal and then followed the ball with his face. He hit HARD. New state law requires any player who gets a head injury to be pulled immediately from the game. That player is not allowed to play or practice again until he receives a doctor's note clearing him from any injury, including concussion.

 

This led to some interesting discussion in the car.

 

BEN: I'm really glad I didn't hit my head.

MAMA: Me, too.

BEN: I'm really glad I never had to have surgery either.

MAMA: Me, too.

BEN: At least, if I have to have surgery, I'm really glad it won't be on my wee-wee.

MAMA: ?? I'm glad you won't have surgery on your penis either.

 

(As a side note, we think Ben said this because he had a friend who did have to have surgery on his penis last year because of a botched circumcision. Otherwise, we're completely clueless!)

 

Steve took some pics. He may even be downstairs right now downloading them while Ben is taking a shower (it's HOT today. 95 degrees according to the car. Those boys were sweaty!). Will post them later once he's gotten them off his camera. He's using a crazy full-featured format that takes HUGE pictures and are just painfully slow to deal with on my WiFi connection.