Soccer seasons are Spring and Fall... at the start of the season last Spring, Cooper broke his arm. The signups for the next round (Fall2011/Spring2012) were in April, and I went ahead and signed up my little broken-armed boy with his team (and his best bud Ridley) and also got his good friend Marc to join the team as well. His arm would be healed by Fall.
... I didn't anticipate Cooper's anxiety ...
He was very worried about breaking his arm again ... combine that anxiety with his weather phobia, and soccer became a very stressful situation. Cooper did NOT want to play. I could have just bagged it, but ... I didn't really care about wasting the money, and I think the team would have been fine without him (we had a couple additions to the team, so there were enough kids which is sometimes a problem in the spring half of the season) ... I just did not want to let the fear win. If I left it up to Cooper, he would spend almost all his time in the bedroom under his covers, and I didn't want that ... so I pushed him a little.
Every game was a struggle. He would cry and cry. We did miss a few of the games, some we just played for a bit and then went home. There was some success ... he totally got into one of the games; he was excited to play, played well, even got a couple of goals! I hoped we had turned a corner. My smiling soccer Cooper was back ... but he was gone again by the next game.
Everyone was very supportive, really trying to cheer Cooper on, making him feel needed and wanted. At the first game, Cooper took a fall and everyone on our sideline gasped and held their breath until he got up again, shaken but unhurt. Cooper seemed content to just stay back and play defense most of the time, and as I'd pushed him just to get to the game, I let him do what he felt most comfortable with on the field. He did get a couple of fast breaks, running up the field and got some great goals.
We were both ready for the Fall soccer season to be over ... Cooper still says he doesn't want to play in the Spring (which he's already signed up for, from the signups last April). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when the time comes he'll want to play. I won't be signing him up again unless HE ASKS for it ... I hope he does. I love watching him play. Here's a little video from a couple of the games from fall season...
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