The spring soccer camp, put on by the Syracuse Silver Knights of the Major Indoor Soccer League, is now over and Jason gave a good account of himself among the younger elite players of the greater Syracuse area. For the first time, I felt like I'd been able to take a somewhat realistic measure of where he might stand among those his own age.
Because on his New York State Junior Soccer Association team, he's actually one of the older members and, to be honest, he was a step or two behind several of them when he first joined in the fall. But he's been rapidly closing that gap--the result of more consistent coaching, a higher level of competition, and his own hard work--and this week it was evident that he's now able to compete at the highest level in his own age group.
We're also approaching the end of the indoor soccer season and, based on the conversation we had on the drive home, the end of his association with the Eastwood Youth Soccer program. Up to that point, I'd been anticipating that the logistics nightmare, which we've been living over the winter due to schedule conflicts and the long drive, was about to intensify.
For the outdoor season, his JSA team is scheduled to play league games every Tuesday, practice every Thursday, and play out-of-league games every Friday. Which makes it quite unlikely that he'd be able to practice with an Eastwood team during the week. So we'd have to find a team whose coach would allow him to play without the customary weekly practice--something not completely beyond the realm of possibility, given his level of play and the fact that his current Eastwood coach would undoubtedly vouch for him.
But the other problem would be that even though his JSA team practices and plays its games during the week, thereby leaving weekends open for Eastwood's games, there are tentative plans for as many as three JSA tournaments which would almost certainly be on weekends. And because I knew I'd have to address those issues with any potential new coach--the one he's played for, since he first started, is staying back an age level to coach his grandson--I asked Jason if I should go ahead with setting it up.
And so it was, on the long, curving ramp up to the highway that would take us back to the city and our old, familiar, Eastwood neighborhood, that my grandson said to me,
"You know, Poppa, I don't think I want to play for Eastwood this year."
And so that, apparently, was that. But when I asked him why, he said, quite honestly,
"Because I know I'd dominate anyone that I'd be playing against and there wouldn't be any challenge anymore."
Which, in thinking about the past week, I knew was absolutely true. His Eastwood games and practices have, in fact, become harder and harder to watch. For his part, Jason is totally focused and consistently works to provide the best opportunities for his teammates to learn and grow and maybe even win a few. Which is what I told him he would have to do when he returned, earlier this season, to the team that gave him his start. His Eastwood teammates, on the other hand, often fall maddeningly short of even those basic standards.
What I think has happened, in recent weeks, is that he's finally gotten comfortable with the sense that, at long last, it's time to move on. And given what I've come to understand myself, over the past week, I have to agree with him. Because if there's anything that a kid needs to understand, when confronting the possibilities and imperatives of change, it's the necessity of moving on.
Which is apparently getting tougher for his old granddad, who's gotten to the age where it's more and more about the hanging on...
LPK
LiveJournal
4.4.2013
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