Before the Overnight

Shane had a busy, busy Saturday. It started with TKD. He knew I was signing him up for Ninja Night, but he didn't know that I was signing him up for the overnight stay. 

Thankfully, he had an awesome class and, as a result, I told him I decided to let him try the sleepover this time.

Spirits were high on the ride home! I pointed out a painted fence I thought was really neat.

Sam came over to play before the soccer game. Sam's dad asked me if I could take Sam to the game since he had to go to UVA's Graduation (He's a professor).

Coach Rahul was at graduation, as well, so that made me volunteer coach. It was a hot day at the field by Burley. The kids enjoyed kicking the soccer ball off the top of the hill before we waited for the game to start.

We only had three kids show up by game time! The other team only had six, so they drafted a sibling to play goalie and loaned us a pair.

Shane volunteered for goalie again, but he didn't see too much action. One of the loaners (Who I can't remember the name of weeks later) had on the field chemistry with Iker. They started passing the ball back and forth and went in for an early goal!

Our team kept pressure up on offense for the rest of the time.

Atlai showed up saying, "Sorry I'm late!" I subbed him in and he got a goal a minute or two later.

"Looks like you came right on time!" I shouted.

The funniest moment of the game was on Sam.

Sam has been a little critical of Shane's goalie play. He was commenting on it to me last week when he was subbed out and we had a small sideline talk on, "Do you want to say things that encourage him and make him play better? Or do you want to pick and frustrate him so that he plays worse?"

That sets the scene.

Sam wanted to play goalie at the end. I said, "Sure" and swapped Shane out to play as a defender.

It was mostly quiet for Sam with our offense going full tilt. He started calling things out like, "Let one through! I want to do something!" and "This is boring! Come on!"

I yelled across the field, "Be careful what you wish for!"

It was as if God planned for a lesson.

After a five minutes of complaining, someone on the other team DID break through. They got past the defender on that side (not Shane). They ran up to the goal with a defender hot on their five, but it was unimpeded between them and Sam in goal.

They shot. Sam dived and managed to get his fingertips on it, but they scored.

"Nice try, Sam!" I called out. "Good dive! You got your fingers on it!"

I made sure to complement the effort and what went well, but I did bring up after the game, "Remember what you asked for?"

It was a resounding final victory for the green team.

Shane and Sam cooled down after the fact with Super Nintendo.

Sam's dad picked him up around 4 PM which gave Shane time to shower and get ready for Ninja Night.

I made Shane carry his own sleeping bag. I could easily have done it for him, but the goal is to give him opportunities to grow.

Like spending the night away from home. Shane was so excited he didn't even look back as I said goodbye.