Cheetahs are Champions

Soccer season has come to an end and Penn's soccer team, the Cheetahs, won first place in their league!  We have two fantastic coaches blessed with some wealth of patience and dedication that wrangle the boy herd through two practices and a game per week that is always a physical, mental and moral exercise.

The Cheetahs are a dynamic cast of characters with bright personalities and skills. I adore each of them.

They are competitive and play hard. Like brothers close in age, they may not always be nice to each other, but I've always been proud of their conduct towards the opposing team.

I cannot say the same for parental conduct this year. Parents have yelled at us across the field. Our coach has been yelled at. One parent even marched across the field and made serious physical threats if he saw our coach off the field. I assure you the aggression is extremely off base, unprovoked and our team is taught to play by the book. I wouldn't allow Penn to play on a team that wasn't run by gentlemen and we're all still confounded as to our opposing teams behavior.

Fortunately our coaches and parents are mature enough to shake it off. We congratulate our boys and take care to not fan the flame. I've heard rumor that some parents are finding themselves in "soccer court" to determine how long they will be banned from the fields.

This is just a game and games are supposed to be fun. These are just 8 year old boys. When they get hurt they cry and they look for their mommies. Often. I hope Penn is having fun out there. I hope he knows I'm proud of how hard he works at soccer practice and how hard he plays at games. And I hope he is happy that I'm at each game, behaving myself on the sidelines and keeping track of his water bottle.

Congratulations, Cheetahs! And thanks for letting me do your soccer portraits again!