Several weeks ago the boys had their soccer tryouts for the 2013-2014 season. This year Gavin would be able to try out for the more advanced level: challenge, where Caleb and Liam are both currently playing. Caleb and Liam decided to tryout for travel soccer, a step up from challenge, for the first time. We have not done this in the past because of all the Sunday games and being that they boys wouldn't be playing those we didn't feel it would be fair to a team if by chance they did make it. But a new level within travel opened up this year that played maybe 1 game on Sunday if at all, which we felt fine in missing if needed.
Tryouts are notorious for bringing on the rain and this year proved no different. Both Caleb and Liam and Gavin had to play in heavy rain, cancelled dates and rescheduled ones, which ultimately makes evaluating them difficult. June 3 was the day of reckoning and there was sense of anxious excitement in the air all weekend. Liam was very excited and I think had a lot of hope that he would make the cut because they kept him on the travel fields during his tryout and didn't shift him back to the challenge field,which is a automatic indication that you would not make the travel team. Gavin was also excited, but true to his nature a little more worried about the whole ordeal. Caleb I think was ambivalent as I don't recall him ever saying much about how he felt.....also true to his nature :) and I think he would have been fine with either outcome. But granted, Caleb was at a National Jamboree pre-camp all weekend, so likely not thinking of soccer too much.
Sunday night news started trickling in. We got an email from Caleb's new coach welcoming him to Classic Travel team. We had a feeling Gavin would make it because they asked Jared to be a coach as they were "considering Gavin for challenge". But, nothing on Liam. Jared was very anxious and worried for Liam as was I. Then I sat down to read a General Conference address by President Eyring titled "Come Unto Me" where I had left off the night before and this was the first sentence I read: "My promise to you who pray and serve the Lord cannot be that you will have every blessing you may wish for yourself and your family. But I can promise you that the Savior will draw close to you and bless you and your family with what is best." I knew in that moment that Liam was not going to have this desire of his heart, but that it would be what was best.
The next morning Jared woke me up before the kids got up to tell me the news that I think we both already knew. Liam came in our room first and we snuggled him and told him the outcome of tryouts. He was heart broken, but when we told him that Caleb and Gavin both made it, he was beyond comfort. It was one of the saddest moments of my life to see how much he was hurting. I told him about the article from President Eyring and my experience the night before and how I knew that there was a reason for this even though we couldn't see it now. He calmed down after that and I made him an offer he couldn't refuse: stay home from school. He took me up on it and we spent the day together and even went out for lunch with Jared for one of his three "straight-A dinners" we owed him.
Liam, I am sorry that the outcome was not what you hoped for, prayed for and even fasted for, but I have been impressed with how you have handled yourself the past few days. You have been gracious with Caleb and Gavin and after those first few hours you stopped moping around and started getting excited about your new team which includes friends from your current team. You are now filled with hope that you will at some point make the travel team and being that you are one of the hardest workers I know, I don't suspect it will take long!
No comments:
Post a Comment