1st Soccer Game

Hudson had his first soccer game May 15th. Papa and Gigi were here to watch and help cheer him on. Hudson was very excited but, unfortunately, once we got there he got stage fright!  Very much unlike his first practice where he jumped in with other kids right away, he clung tightly to my leg and had to be coaxed into going out to play.  He did great during his first practice when there were only a few parents watching but the bigger crowd at his game kinda freaked him out.  He would just stand in one spot and not move while looking like he was in a daze. Every now and then he would re-focus and start participating again. Then he would randomly throw himself on the ground like he did in practice, only more frequently.  He would also go find places on the court to go stand by himself and fiddle with something while looking terrified. He is not shy and I had never seen him act like this before so I was a little shocked. At first we thought he may have just been tired from staying up too late playing with Papa. Then I took him out in the hall and asked him what was wrong. He told me no one was sharing and everyone was screaming at him. Basically, after more talks, I realized that playing soccer went against just about everything we have taught him and I just didn't realize it! We have taught him to share, which soccer is all about not sharing the ball. We kept telling him to get the ball but he didn't understand why he would just jump in and take the ball away from someone. Some other kid was being aggressive and pushed him but didn't say "sorry" so that upset him. We had to teach him that it is 'okay' to be aggressive when playing a sport. Also, he didn't know what cheering was. He thought when everyone was cheering, they were actually yelling at him. : (

It was still very entertaining to watch!  One time, Hudson and 3 others decided to congregate and compare shin gaurds right in the middle of the game!  It was so funny to watch them all run as fast as they could to chase after the run-away ball (the ball moved really fast on the basketbal court flooring). 
Go Sharks!!