In Easton Summer the neighborhood kids have an impromptu baseball game in the Sanders ranch field. In Easton Harvest they switch to soccer. Not happy with just calling the neighborhood kids the "neighborhood kids," I named them Kevin, Ryan, Mike, Paul, Ben and Bobby. Having more players in soccer I added, Scott, Brandon and Nick. Anyone care to guess the source of these names?
Here's a snippet of our soccer game:
I stood on the back porch, hands on hips and watched the
activity in the pasture. There must have been 20 kids out there. It looked like
they were trying to play soccer. Jerry was out there with them. I think he was
the referee. Mike Andrieni’s father, Wade, was out there directing the playing.
Mom was darting from place to place with her camera. I grinned at her
determination to catch every shot she could.
Jonathan and Lauren were both in the field with Jason,
Eric and Sonja. I thought Jerry had taken Jonathan home after dropping us off
at the house, but it looks like Jonathan came back with Jerry. Jonathan seemed
a bit skittish. I think it would be good for him to spend time with the kids.
Honey and Cookie were out in the field with the kids. Honey stood with her tail
at attention waiting for the ball to come her way. She would take off with the
ball if she could. Moo was munching the dried grass next to the fence and Cookie
was facing the big cow making sure she stayed away from the tiny dog. Freckles
was in the field standing next to Eric. The little spotted dog stayed close to
his master. I hope he didn’t get stepped on.
“Hey,” I called out to the field. “What are you playing?”
Jason and Eric looked my way. Jason had his usual grin on his face.
Jason gave me a wave and jogged to the fence. “We’re
playing soccer.”
“Do you have enough people to play?” I asked, not real
certain how to play soccer in a pasture.
“Oh, we’re just playing for fun. We’re divided up
evenly,” Jason enthused. “Eric, Sonja, Jon, Lauren, Derek, David and me are on
one team, and Mike, Ben, Kevin, Scott, Brandon, Ryan, Paul and Bobby are on the
other team.”
“So you’re just dribbling balls
back and forth and whoever gets the most goals wins?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Jason said fidgeting to get back.
“Well, go play. I’ll watch from here,” I told him. Jason
ran back out to the field and I watched the boys and girls run around chasing
after the soccer ball. Someone had dragged a couple of wooden benches out to
the field from the barn to serve as goals. Kevin was guarding one side and Eric
the other. Since no one had on uniforms or any equipment, it was hard to tell
who was on which team.
Sonja stood holding the ball eyeing all the kids. She was
throwing the ball into play. She moved the ball over her head and aimed it at
Bobby and threw it. I heard “I got it, I got,” from a few of the kids and then
the ball was off. Bobby was running it towards the goal guarded by Kevin. She passed
the ball to Jonathan who ran with it a few steps and then passed it on to Eric.
Scott tried to intercept it. Nick actually tackled the ball away from Eric
sending it over the imaginary touch line. Somewhere Jerry had found a whistle
and blew it to indicate the ball was out of play.
I watched as the kids really got into playing. The ball
was ran up and down the field and it seemed all the kids were taking turns
moving it. I heard “Score” shouted a couple of times but I couldn’t tell who
had scored. Coach Wade spent his time gesturing with his hands as the kids
played. I scratched my head and wondered how they were keeping track of what
they were doing. I was going to have to brush up on soccer, I thought.
Let me know what you think.
No comments:
Post a Comment