Over the weekend I had the pleasure of shooting the Blue Diamonds Soccer Club at the OP Soccer Complex.  The team is made of Fourth Grade girls from Overland Park coached by Kevin Kirchmer & James Nordstrom.

First let me set the stage – the game was held at Overland Park’s multimillion-dollar Soccer Only Complex, which hosted the US Youth Soccer National Championships a few weeks ago.   In fact, Fox Sports Soccer televised the U19 Men’s National Championship Match live.

The Blue Diamonds game was at 3:00, the hottest part of the day, on what seemed to be the hottest day of the year.  The temperature on the turf is even hotter.

As I took my photos in the blazing sun I thought to myself these poor girls have GOT to be miserable out here.

BUT – as I watched their smiling faces dripping with sweat, heard giggling when they swung and missed the ball, sincere apologies for hitting the opposing team, or enemy, with the ball on an errant shot, and even the Goalkeeper singing while the ball was on the other end of the field – I REALIZED – these Kids are having FUN!

How could this be?

At Half Time the coaches had the players water up and rest.  But the girls seemed more interested in playing a game of Duck, Duck, Goose and chasing each other around in circles.

I begun to wonder if any of them knew the score of the game, what this game meant to their chances of winning the League Championship, the IMPACT it has on their Scholarship opportunity to a D1 University…

This past weekend made me reminiscent of the youth teams I played on.  The Rustoleum Pirates with our Red and White Stripped uniforms; the Metropolitan Life Meteors with Nick Naggy who I swore would be a Pro Soccer Player; Coach Turner who always showed up late and farmed the field after one practice; and the Parents versus the Kids Game at the end of the season.

What I can’t remember is how many Games, or even Championships we won.  But I do Remember it was FUN!  

The FUN these 4th Grade Girls were having on this HOT day is a tribute to Coach Kirchmer and Coach Nordstrom!