Sports at our school are not as competitive as in the U.S. They don't practice everyday for hours on end. Most children don't have private coaches. I don't believe my child will be the next Jeter, Messi or LeBron. But, he's a hard worker who constantly wants to improve no matter what he's doing. And up until July of this year, his feet had never kicked a soccer ball. We asked him at the end of school if maybe he wanted to check soccer out because he was heading to a country where soccer is important. Where he would be attending a very "international" school, where many children loved the game. So he agreed to go to camp and seemed to enjoy it.
We signed him up for Saturday morning soccer upon our arrival here in Malaysia. And, I continued to see him work hard and do his best on Saturdays. (You'll remember some blogs where I said I didn't think he had the makings of a soccer player because I didn't think he was aggressive enough for the sport.) At no time, did I ever think he'd be chosen to represent his school in a soccer tournament. Until, right before Christmas when we got the email. WOW! His hard work truly did pay off.
This past Saturday I had the chance to watch him play in a tournament at the local French School. He played 5 matches - and the kid was amazing. Yes, he played well. (He only sat out the first half of the first game.) He played striker the entire time. But, more importantly, he took criticism (and praise) from his coach extremely well, received many compliments from other parents, shook the players' hands on the opposing team, congratulated his own teammates on the awesome plays they made, watched the other matches and learned from doing so. His sportsmanship is what made me proud...that is what I found to be amazing.
They won 2 games, tied 2 games, and lost 1 game. They didn't win a medal that day. But, I couldn't be any prouder if they had...
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