Character Building 101

Hello Stampers,

I try to keep this a stamping blog but sometimes something happens that I just feel I have to share.  This time it’s about my son Ian and how proud I was of him this weekend.

On Saturday his soccer team had the opportunity to win the Gold Medal in their Division.  All they had to do was win the game and they were all excited about the possibility.

We were up 3-1 when my son had an awesome rush to the net.  He beat a few players by dribbling around them and then outrunning some.  Then he got by the keeper who had come out of his net to defend.  Now he had nothing between him and the goal.  They were hot on his heels when the ball took a bad bounce off his foot and hit the crossbar and over the net.  Ian couldn’t believe it…I felt sick for him.  What did my kid do?…he went over to the keeper for the other team and shook his hand.  I was so proud of him!  What a lot of character that showed.

Unfortunately the other team rallied and tied the score and we were in a shoot out situation.  As each kid took a turn I kept wondering whether Ian would step up to take one of the 5 positions.  He always does take a turn at shootouts as he was a leading scorer on the team all year.   We were down to a our last man and up steps Ian.  He takes the shot and scores keeping us alive in the shoot out.  Unfortunately their last man also scored and the other team won the shoot out.

The lesson was huge for me on Saturday.  I was sad that they hadn’t won the medal but it was overshadowed by the pride I had in my son.  If he had missed the last penalty shot they would have been out – when he stepped up to take the shot, after feeling humilated at missing the open net goal, I was so awe struck by his courage at taking such a big risk.  He delivered!

Another soccer season is under our belts, it had a lot of ups and downs but in the end Ian had his most successful season of his playing days.    And not because he scored more goals and assists than I can count this year.  His greatest accomplishment was getting past an embarrasing moment and "manning up" (his words) to carry on and finish the game in style.

Just when I think this teenage boy is going to be the death of me (at least the smell in his room might kill us all) he amazes me with this kind of honourable behaviour.

He is now onto organizing a group for the Spring Indoor League and was wondering what they could call their team when he said "hey Mom, how about the Open Netters?"…he has a good sense of humour too!

Well done Ian!

Back to stamping tomorrow…

Alison