Soccer is back in the air.

The soccer season is upon us again and this year Nolan is finally able to play. It took him a couple of practices to get use to the idea but is finally happy about finally being on a team. It helps that I am one of his coaches and he has a good friend on his team as well. Everyones first game was this weekend and the Beard family went 2 - 1. I decided to spike Nolan's hair to celebrate his first game.


Here are Maddux and Nolan during Brooklyn's game. Neither of them could wait for their games to start. I actually got pretty lucky this weekend as I was able to watch all three games. I don't think I caught very many of Brooklyn's games over the last two years as most were at the same time as Maddux.


Brooklyn's team won 2 - 0 and Brooklyn actually played pretty well when in the game. She moved up this year and is playing with 10 , 9 & 8 year olds. They are also playing with full soccer rules and are starting to have to learn the game and the different positions. She seems to be on a pretty good team and her coach really seems to know what he is doing. It will be fun to watch her develop playing for someone who really knows what he is doing.


Brooklyn actually played a little more aggressive than in past years and was not afraid to get right in there and take the ball away from the other team. Here she is getting right in the path of the other player and took the ball away from her.


I was surprise that Brooklyn actually showed some offensive aggressiveness during her game. She has never been known for her offensive skills but actually went to the goal a couple of times and had a couple moments of dribbling the ball up the field. She usually just kicks it once and is happy with that. Maybe we will see this part of her game develop this year.


Nolan just hanging out during Maddux' game.


Maddux's game was a little different of a story as his team really struggled. He is now playing with 7 year olds but is playing on a much bigger field. I think that was the main difference as they were all tired midway during the second period. We have no one on our team who played on the bigger field last year so the kids really didn't know what to expect. It was funny because at one point in the second quarter we asked who needed a rest and all 7 players raised their hand. At least they now know what to expect and we have an idea, as coaches, on what we need to work on. They lost 4 - 1 and really were worn out by the end of the game. This is a picture of Maddux playing goalie and stopping a shot on goal.


Although Nolan isn't much of a player yet he was very excited to be out on the field and was the leader of the high-fives after every goal. He does have some pretty good players on his team and they won their game 12 - 0. He is the biggest kid on the field and just needs to realize that he can go where ever he wants and do what ever he wants. He is not afraid to get in the middle of things but tends to back off after he gets the ball out of the scrum.


I kept trying to tell Nolan to run to the goal when his teammates have the ball so he could get ready for a pass and then score. Well he took it as running right to or in the goal and then just waiting for something to happen. We will have to work on this with him so we can get him some easy goals this year. At this point he really doesn't care if he scores as long as he can give high-fives after his team scores.


This might be Nolan's favorite part of the game. This year he finally gets his own treat and drink after every game.


Have you ever been this tired? This has nothing to do with soccer but this is how we found Nolan after Church this afternoon. He fell asleep in the car on the way home but woke up once we pulled in the driveway. We told him to go into his room and get changed before we ate. Once dinner was ready we went to see where he was and this is what we found. He managed to get his pants down to his ankles and then just couldn't take anymore. He fell asleep right there in the middle of getting changed.

Well next week will be an off-week as we celebrate Labor Day so it will be a couple of weeks before we have any soccer updates.