But, apparently, there is crying in lacrosse.
The girl has been excited for lacrosse for years. She’s been begging to play lacrosse since she first saw our next door neighbor with her lacrosse equipment. There is no preschool lacrosse. I can see why. I’m not really sure why there’s kindergarten lacrosse. This is not a sport for the meek. Or the non-meek, for that matter, all those crazy balls flying, sticks waving, girls screeching.
The girl was super cute out there: When instructed to run, toss the ball out of her lacrosse stick, and then scoop the ball back into her stick, Pie would run, halt, dump the ball out, lean down, pick the ball up with her hand, stroll a little, and then place the ball in the pocket. To her credit, I was informed by a mother more in the know that we were supposed to place a ball in the pocket of the stick, lodge a pencil in to keep the ball in there, and then let it sit overnight to stretch out the netting in the pocket. So every time Pie tried to hold the ball, it would bounce off the flat non-existent pocket (a nocket, perhaps?).
The evil was those stupid goggles. She complained they hurt and when I took them off her face, she had deep red grooves on her little cheeks. But then again, so did everyone else. I tried loosening the goggles but when then they fell off her head. Stupid girls’ lacrosse. Boys lacrosse is contact, so they get to wear helmets. But girl lacrosse? Noooo. None of that contact for them! C’mon, let the girls go at each other, too! So painful goggles it is! She started crying and saying she just wanted to be with me, as my seat on the sidelines was clearly the next state over to her. Yet when I asked her if she wanted to go home, she shook her head and went back into the practice. And despite her goggle misery, she plans on returning next week.
I do suspect that the goggles weren’t the real problem. I think it was the mouthguard. Because with the mouthguard in, she couldn’t chat. I saw her taking it out a few times to say something to another player, but she’d inevitably have to put it back in before she could finish her thought. I’m sure by the end of the season she’ll have figured out a way to communicate with the mouthguard in. In the meantime, she’ll just have to rely on the family motto to get her through it: Suck it up.
Awww! She looks so freakin’ cute!!! We have a similiar motto in our household- “You finish what you start.” Kudos to her for WANTING to go back for more ;o) When my son first started playing soccer, he was MISERABLE!! He cried almost every single practice for the first two weeks. I think if I would’ve asked him if he wanted to leave, he would’ve said “Heck yeah!” lol.
I agree with you, Angela, except that for the kindergartner, we’re viewing this sporting season as a “see what sports you like,” so when she’s older, she’ll know what she can skip. Also, I’m pretty sure she was the ONLY five year old out there. But she’s definitely not the quitting type and I did know my audience when I asked that. 🙂