GOOOOOOOOOAL

"What have you started feeding that girl? She's on FIRE!" The coach asked as Brandi kicked the ball into the net for the 6^th time.

A short two minutes later Brandi's cleat connected with the ball one more time, sending it up and over the goal keeper's arms to make her 9^th goal for the day.

That's right- 9 goals today alone.

Thursday, the team mom for another team in her club called to see if Brandi could sub in for one of their team members that could not make it Friday night or Saturday morning. She agreed.

Friday night she didn't play very much and the little bit of time she did play, she was not happy about. The coach likes to play the girls in all positions to give them experience and Brandi mostly played in the defender position- not her best position, she is a forward. But it was ok, it gave her experience and time with another team and coach which I think is only good.

Then this morning- she didn't play very much in the first half of the game, just long enough for the girl she went in for to get a drink and a breath then she sat the rest of the half. She sat most of the first part of the second half and I was thinking that I wasn't sure the drive to Holliday was worth the gas. Then she went in as forward, immediately touched the ball and put it in the goal. Score at this point? 3-0. Then a couple minutes later she connected from almost middle of the field, gave the ball a hard boot and BAM into the goal. Score 4-0. The game ended about five minutes later and she felt that it was worth the drive.

But we had to get home for another game with her team.

She slept most of the way home.

And then during her second game of the day? I was afraid she was going to be tired and not perform well.

I should be ashamed.

If the ball was near her, she got a foot on it. Or a head. She passed. She followed. She saw her team mates. She kicked. She scored- 7 times.

She has scored at least 2 goals per game this entire season.

Paying for her to play indoor soccer all winter was worth it.

Paying a trainer to train her during February and March was worth it.

And you know what impresses me the most about her scoring? She is not cocky about it. She scores, she jogs back to center field to set up for the next play. No victory dance, no gloating, no grand standing. One of the other moms said, "She never takes any glory for herself. It's like she does her job and is ready to get on with it."

But after we took her out for supper she asked if we could walk next door to the grocery store and get a treat because, "don't I deserve it after all those goals?" as she gave me a huge, cheesy grin and batted her eyes at me.

One thing that was weird for me though, the ref. was a cute high school boy. When the coach called him sir I laughed right out loud. Why? Because when I worked at the junior high he was one of my students and hearing him called sir was just too much. (and David, you used to coach him)