He was quiet and timid. His head hung low as his eyes were fixed on the ground. Other kids were kicking a soccer ball around the park, but he had no interest in joining them. It was the preseason soccer team get together with Brody’s new coach, and it seemed like it was the last place in the world Brody wanted to be. Except…it was exactly where he wanted to be, he just didn’t know it yet.
Brody has always struggled with new situations. He definitely prefers to test the waters slowly before jumping in with both feet. Call it cautiousness, timidity, shyness, you name it. As his coach introduced himself he told all of us parents that he would be pushing our 1st grade boys to the edge during the season. He made sure we all knew that he would run them hard and expect a lot from them, and that we would be supportive of that. After he finished his introductions, we pulled him aside and asked him to double down on Brody.
It wasn’t that we wanted him to be singled out. We just saw his potential. We knew how athletic Brody can be and what he is capable of when he decides to go all in on something. That was day one of the soccer season.
By the end of the season, our little guy would have been unrecognizable to anyone who had been there on day one. We would barely be able to keep him from running through the busy parking lot to the practice fields. He would jump at any and every opportunity to volunteer during practice. Some of our proudest moments were spent watching him come alive on the soccer field, falling back to protect the goal and passing the ball to set teammates up for goal shots. We couldn’t be any more proud of him and love the process of watching him be stretched and challenged. More and more he steps up to the plate and knocks it out of the park! Ok, that was a poor sports analogy since we are talking about soccer, but you get the idea! 😉
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