KICKING AND SCREAMING! but just mainly kicking.

intense coaching moment

Soccer season started up this past weekend! This year we officially have a TEAM, and we're the...... NEON NINJAS!
Coop put in some good time thinking of possible team names based on our fluorescent yellow jerseys. The Treasure Hunters, the Golden Cheetahs, the Yellow Cheetahs.... then we both got really stoked on being the SLIMERS, but realized that reference (Ghostbusters, of course) may go over the average 5-years old's head.  We had a quick vote at our team meeting, and the Neon Ninjas just barely won over the Cheetahs.  For Coop, it was a crash course on team politics, but I guess you gotta learn to go with the flow. 

For our Boys under 6 league, we split up the team into 2, so we have 2 games going on at once. This may sound confusing, but it's awesome because the games end up being 3 on 3, which makes for lots of action, and less of the "bee syndrome" when there is a pack of 20 kids chasing the ball.

One week in and we're lookin good!
Both of our teams won on Saturday, and Cooper had a goal! Most of all the SNACKS WERE AWESOME! 

CRUCIAL SOCCER SATURDAY ITEMS:
-SUN SCREEN (we're big fans of SUN BUM)
-UMBRELLA / BLANKET / CHAIRS (whatever combo you dig works)
-LOTS OF WATER / GATORADE / VITAMIN WATER
-LOTS OF ORANGE SLICES
-tennis shoes to throw on after the game (for the soccer players, right?)

PUT ME IN COACH

As daylight savings arrives, so does St. Patrick's day, warm afternoons, and BASEBALL! Cooper decided to try tee-ball out this year for his first time out on the field. We wrapped up a successful soccer season last fall in the AYSO Jamboree program in San Clemente (which I will praise til no end some other time), but we all his buddies steppin up to the plate, he chose to give baseball a chance instead of sticking with year round soccer. I've gotta say, we've are ridiculously lucky to have scored an awesome team of cool kids, awesome parents, and amazing coaches. Baseball can at times be a little bit slower paced than your average "pack of bees" soccer game, but our coaches have a great philosophy of keeping all the dudes interested and stoked, which makes for great games. 

The main goal is to keep the dudes having fun, and teach them to be good sports... It's fun to cheer on their teammates when they go up to bat, and give out hi-fives for good plays. It's pretty early in the season, but it seems like the San Clemente Angels are  getting the hang of things! If you have kids that are on the fence about starting up teeball, I would highly recommend trying it out. It's the perfect level where the kids are having maximum fun and staying stoked,  while learning the ins and outs of the game. We definitely scored with landing the Angels as our team, and I think we'll probably have an attention span of more than an inning next time we hit a real major league game! 

Oh yeah! I got to flex some graphic design skills and put together our team banner! The night before our first game I kinda freaked out and thought, "HOW/WHERE ARE WE GONNA PUT THIS THING UP?!?!" So I ran down to Lowe's 5 minutes before they closed, and bought a load of PVC pipe and built a banner stand. Lo and behold, when we arrived for the first game, the teams from the previous game had their banners hanging from the chain-link fence backstop. DUH! BUT! If you are in the need of a PVC pipe banner frame (for baseball, soccer, or WHATEVER!) here are some VERY SIMPLE instructions on how to do it!

here's a link to the Angels baseball schedule for 2013!

here's a link for Metrolinks TRAIN TO THE GAME promotion!