My Weekend Window in Three Acts

Act I: The Soccer Tournament

For those of you read regularly, you know that I spent the weekend in Cocoa Beach at DS 2's soccer tournament. His team just went "Premiere" which means they are playing at a higher level and will be having more and more "away" tournaments and games.

We played our first game on Friday evening, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Their record for the tournament was 2 wins and 2 losses. They did not make it to the final due to this record. This photo shows DS 2 in the center.

My favorite moment of the tournament happened in a non-tournament event, though. Yesterday morning, our team was scheduled to play a team from Mexico. Their record in the tournament was not good at all. They were losing 6 and 7 to zero. In fact, we heard they called one of their games at the half. Our game was no different. It was quickly 6-0. They only played a 30 minute first half (vs. the normal 45 minutes) and suddenly we were told the Mexicans called the game. It was obvious from the outset that many of the Mexican players were smaller than our boys. I later found out that many were MUCH younger. They had to register in the division of the oldest person on their team (U-17) and this despite the majority of the team being U-14.

As we packed up our belongings, and most parents were already half way across the field to leave, we noticed people coming back toward the bleachers. The buzz was great and the news spread, "The boys don't want to stop playing. They are going to mix up the teams and play for fun." And, in a moment of true sportsmanship unlike any other I have witnessed, these boys from two very different cultures dropped all their differences, blended their teams to form two NEW teams and played the game simply "for fun". It actually brought a tear to my eye (I know I am a sap anyway!). Still, it made me proud that these guys could think about this Mexican team and help them enjoy the tournament that had been pretty miserable for them up to that point.