There are a lot of sports options out there for Northeast Florida children: baseball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, karate, golf, swimming, football and flag football, track and field, dance and cheer, even ice hockey, to name a few. Finding the sport that sticks when your kids are young isn’t always easy and sometimes takes trial and error until they find the one that best fits them.
READ: A Mom’s Real Guide to Kids’ Sports
With our first son, that sport was soccer. From the minute he could kick a ball, he did. And he’s still playing competitive soccer in his teenage years. He did try flag football, did karate for a few years and made it to a brown belt, and can play golf, but his passion is soccer. It always has been and probably always will be. Aside from playing, he watches soccer every chance he gets and participates in a fantasy league with his dad and is at the top of the league against grown men because he lives, breathes and eats soccer, especially the Premier League.
Our younger son hasn’t had as clear of a sports path. We thought it would be soccer like his big brother. They do play a lot of soccer, even seven years apart in age, but his love for it comes and goes. He did karate until he broke his arm at school and then didn’t care to go back. He’s talked about wanting to do baseball — we both played baseball and softball — so we thought that might catch on, but nope.
READ: My Son Quit Baseball (And It Bothered Me More Than It Did Him
We have explored science clubs and art classes, and he really enjoys those. So, we thought he wouldn’t pursue a sport right now which is okay. That was until we bought a basketball hoop for the driveway and the beast was unleashed. He has been outside every waking hour practicing his shots. He asks for hype music to get pumped up for his “training” and does pushups and jumping jacks in between to keep his fitness up to become a “better baller.” The timing of March Madness couldn’t have been better. He’s enjoyed watching the games and learning the rules and then taking what he sees on TV to the court.
We are absolutely thrilled he has found his own sport to love. He is signed up for a basketball league over the summer to try his first true team sport. The neighborhood kids have all been coming down to play, and he loves when he has a buddy to play with. We also have a trampoline that the kids love and use daily but needs to be disposed of after two years of weathering the outdoors. So, out with the old and in with the new… basketball hoop. This early birthday present turns out to be better than we expected!
