Chance the defender

Chance started playing soccer this year. We have not been a big soccer family so far, so we wondered how Chance would adapt to the game. He was really excited to play, but he had not had much exposure. In baseball, you can observe the players around you and watch the other team play when you are in the infield.

In soccer if you stop to observe, you get pinged in the head with a ball. There is also non stop action and you have to be able to hear a coach's directions as both you and he are running up the field.

Chance has taken to soccer very well. He is fast and does very well being a defender by the goal. He is good at blocking shots before they even reach the goalie.

Today as he played, I noticed that at one point he was just standing on the field glancing in my direction. I had glanced away from the field for one moment, and when I turned back, there Chance stood.

"Oh no! He's been wounded and I don't know which body part I am going to need to focus on when he comes over." I thought. You turn away for one second...

It turns out Chance wasn't looking at me at all. He was focused on the Apache helicopters that were flying by. I was surprised actually that Chance had not noticed the helicopters earlier in the game. They kept flying by. Helicopters are one of the few sounds that Chance can hear with "a natural" ears.

There was no defending going on at this point as Chance was mesmerized. He ran over to point the helicopters out to me and after acknowledging that they were indeed cool, I sent him back out to defend his goal.

I have been pleasantly surprised to see how much Chance hears out on the field. He hears his coach calling out calls, telling him to go here or there and does not miss much at all. I am sure that he does not hear absolutely everything, but he is on the ball and when his coach calls out something to the whole team like."Kick the ball away from the goal." Chance moves in to do just that.

So, soccer is going well. It turns out Chance is quite good at this game.

I am glad that we signed him up to play.