Preview, Part 2

(Or maybe this should have been part 1 since it will happen first.)

We dropped Thing One off at his first sleepaway soccer camp on Saturday.  He was gone through yesterday morning, so four full days in total.  Unfamiliar university, didn't know a soul, and he had never interacted with college soccer coaches before, so very a steep learning curve.  On top of that, he was one of the younger kids there.  A few rising freshmen, a few rising sophomores like himself, but the bulk of the 60-odd boys were either a year or two years older.  You could see it looking at them, not so much in their height but in the breadth of their shoulders and in how they play the game...quick, explosive and deadly.

Good practice for sending him off to college I guess.  For both of us.    

Within the first 24 hours, he managed to lock himself out of his dorm room.  Rite of passage.  He handled the situation, though.  Two days into the camp he decided that he needed to do laundry, since he couldn't take the stench of his laundry bag full of dirty clothes.  Ha.  As I'd suggested, he texted me a picture of the dorm washer and dryer controls, and I walked him through the process.  Baby steps, but success.  Four days of getting himself up in the morning, to meals, and to whatever facility he needed to be at on campus on time with all the correct stuff, entirely on his own.  Life practice, right there.

Early on, when we asked him how the soccer itself was going, he sounded a bit intimidated.  For this camp, the boys were divided into four teams, each run by a college coach.  The coach of his group runs a Division 1 program.  Four of the boys that were on his team play the same position he does and are two years older.  I asked if he was able to keep up with them on the field, and his response was "Ish."  As in, sort of.  The training consisted of various sorts of field exercises plus a round-robin of games between the four teams, three sessions of soccer a day in brutal heat.  (Oh, and the dorms had no air-conditioning.  That life experience thing again.)

He seemed to be getting quite a bit of playing time in the games, which was cool.  Usually three quarters or so.  And his team was doing well.  Tuesday morning, he texted us that his team had made it to the final, which I would get to see since it was the last thing on the schedule, right before pickup yesterday morning.  Then, later that afternoon, another text: "I think I made the All-Star team."  He had.  The coach who had read out the names laughed when he went over and asked if he could see the list because he thought he'd heard his name but didn't believe it!  Talk about a confidence booster.

The temp was in the low 80s and really muggy for the final yesterday morning.  It was clear from the warmup that the other team was stronger, and they ended up winning 2-0, but it was still a good game.  And Thing One played for 30 of the 40 minutes (I timed it) as the only centerback.  This coach only put three defenders in the back line in front of the goal, unlike his club and high school coaches who play four across the back.  Thing One was by himself in the middle of the field immediately in front of the goal as the last line of defense for a full 3/4 of the final game.  And he played solidly there.  If it hadn't been too hot to cry, I would have cried.

I asked him on the way home if he'd learned anything at camp.  He thought for a minute, and then told me that he's learned that he can play to the level of his competition, even when that level is very high.  Sounds like a good take-home.  So proud of that boy.