Soccer Saturdays #TBTStories

I'm sharing a Throwback Thursday Stories photo from one of those sunny soccer Saturdays in 1995. This is a picture of our 4 youngest and our niece, Caroline. (She spent a lot of time with us back then.) I'm not sure why David isn't in the picture. It might be because he was playing on a travel team at that point, and wasn't in the same location, or it could also be that he was officiating a game nearby. Both David and Jim were referees for our youth soccer league. This eliminated Jim's yelling pointing out from his chair beside me that a player was offside, since, as a ref, he could just blow the whistle and be done with it.

Those were busy mornings, getting everyone up, packing snacks, locating socks, shoes, and shinguards, and trying to arrive at the fields in time for warmups. It was nice when two of the kids were on the same team, as that meant one less game to sit through watch on Saturday morning. It was a few years after this that we opted to spend our Saturdays watching football (at Purdue) instead of playing futbol. David, Andrew, and Jennifer did continue with soccer in high school. Andrew switched to football his junior year, and remained injury free, while David and Jennifer each suffered a broken arm on the soccer field when they were seniors. Go figure.

Jonathan 8, Andrew 11,

Caroline 8, Adam almost 5, Jennifer almost 10

Here's to the memory of crisp fall days, cheering parents, smiling kids, and sweet soccer Saturdays. #TBTStories