The boys wrapped up their Fall sports over the last week. Gabriel finished both his soccer season and his cross country season, and Judah finished up his first season of Tee ball. This has made for busy weekends because these three sports are spread across both weekend days, but the boys enjoy them so much, and it gets us (and keeps us) active and outside all weekend.
Gabriel enjoyed being one of the stars of his team (the Blue Lightening) this year, scoring several goals and being recognized at the end of the season by his coaches, teammates (and even parents and a ref!) as the player who ran (and ran and ran) the most and fastest during the games. Gabriel never stops going after the ball and often played the entire game. This has not always been the case for him, in fact this is the first season where we've really seen Gabriel engage fully in the game and put his heart into it. It was so fun to watch him grow into this level of soccer playing. Next season, Andy may even be a coach!
Gabriel's cross country season consisted of two 1-mile races in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and one indoor meet at the New Balance Armory Track in Northern Manhattan (both legendary running sites!). His times have decreased over the last year, from a 8:30 and 7:32 mile, to a 7:22 and 7:04 mile this season. He also consistently places in the top 30 of 7-10 year olds, usually of anywhere from 100-200 total runners in this age category. For his indoor meet, he placed second for the 100-m dash and third for the 200-m. We try very hard not to push him too much into running, even though we are both so passionate about it, and in general he has been pretty self-motivated to run these races. Andy mentioned that he has even noticed how Gabriel has changed his race strategy and seems to be experimenting with how to regulate his pace. Very exciting!
Judah thoroughly enjoyed his first Tee ball season. Last Fall we tried soccer with him with limited success, but this year he seems to have found his sport (and in fact it was by his request that we registered him for Tee ball; we had planned to give soccer another go). From the very first practice, Judah was fully engaged in learning all about baseball. He picked up on the "alligator" and step and throw moves to catch and throw the ball. He often played first base, but also enjoyed playing outfield to field the balls that sneaked through the legs of his fellow players :). Like Gabriel, Judah was recognized as one of the fastest runners on the team, to his delight. He also found it his place to correct other players when they weren't following the rules (yes, mildly annoying) and debate with the coaches occasionally while playing outfield. This is Judah. He talks a lot, he thinks a lot, he has big and specific ideas, and he's not afraid to articulate them! All of the kids were able to graduate over the course of the season from using the tee to coach's pitch, and Judah is already looking forward to the Spring season and pick up with coach's pitch where he left off.
Really proud of these boys for playing (and practicing) hard this Fall, next up, Winter sports! Basketball (G) and Tennis (J)!
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