soccer injury, of all things.

I've posted a bit about his football excursion before. He's small for his age and very average athletically. He's a fine soccer player. Very good with a ball at his feet, but I knew he wasn't really built for football. He was all in on signing up in 7th grade, though, since that's just what you do when you're a seventh-grade boy in Texas.

He found out pretty quickly that being the small kid wasn't a ton of fun during tackling drills, etc. But he stuck it out and had enough of a positive experience that he came back to do it again for one more year before he "retired" to focus on soccer in HS.

At his soccer game this weekend he was filling in at goalkeeper since our normal starter was gone. The other team's best player was one of those 8th graders that looks like a 12th grader. He got a ferocious shot off at one point in the first half. My kid was well positioned and blocked it, but the ball caught his hand at just the wrong angle and had enough force to fracture his wrist in two places. The ortho said five weeks before he could play football again, but the season ends in 33 days.

I'm probably a little more disappointed than he is, to be honest. He's still got soccer to look forward to, but I don't get to see him play football again. I've seen first-hand now what a great thing football can be for boys, though. Discipline, goal setting, perseverance, etc. - all the things you want your kids to get out of sports. I'm glad he got to experience it. He accomplished way more in 1.5 middle school seasons than his dad ever did.