Soccer Evaluation

Zachary’s school offers a variety of different activities that you can sign your kids up for (that are extra, beyond just the normal tuition). They are sort of like extra-curricular activities, but the activities come to the school during the school day. This year Zachary wanted to sign up for soccer (but that was only after he found out that his friend Cameron wanted to do soccer…). Soccer comes on Mondays and this week they sent home an evaluation, I guess covering the first part of this school year. The evaluation covered a variety of areas, where the coach (“Miss Coach Jenn”, as Zachary calls her) rated him on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being “beginner”, 2 being “developing”, 3 being “satisfactory achievement”, 4 being “above average” and 5 being “excellent”. Here is a rundown of parts of Zachary’s evaluation (I didn’t include everything).

Under “Life/Classroom Skills”, she gave him a 3 in Listening but 5’s in Enthusiasm/Participation and in Social Interaction. Her comment was “Zachary is always so enthusiastic and has a great attitude! He just needs to work on focusing during instructions, because he tends to get distracted socializing with others.” (Well, he needs to work on focusing in a lot of areas…guess he’s going to be the social butterfly later on – what’s the “boy” version of that???)

Under “Motor Skills”, she gave him 3’s in Balance & in Movement but a 5 in Strength. Her comment was “He has such a powerful kick and displays very good strength.” (Funny how she made no comment on his clumsiness – guess that was covered in the 3 she gave him in Balance? For example, on Monday he told me that he got hurt in soccer because he was standing on a soccer ball and fell off...I guess nobody told him that when you stand on a ball, you are going to fall off - unless you are a clown in the circus.)

Under “Soccer Skills” she gave him a 3 in Ball Control and 5’s in Heading and in Shooting. What is funny about this to me is I’ve never seen him “head” the ball. Is she sure he’s actually heading it and not just getting bonked in the head with the ball because he was too busy talking to other kids to notice that someone kicked the ball to him? I’m only half kidding. Her comment in this area was “Zachary has a great understanding of the game and is always ready to learn more!” (I wonder what is meant by “great understanding of the game” – like, he understands that you kick the ball? Or is she talking more complex aspects of the game, like offense & defense? I’m guessing the first one…)

I’m glad they think he is doing well. She didn’t give him anything less than a 3, which I’m not sure if they try to avoid that, or if he’s actually doing pretty good, but considering he had never played soccer at all, I think that is good. She also said that “He is a great teammate to the others & his passion for the game will definitely help him to continue to improve!” Boy, I really wish I could be there to watch soccer class one week. After we signed him up, we bought him a soccer ball and a pop-up soccer goal so he could practice in the backyard, and he NEVER wants to play soccer at home – always football. If that is passion, then I’d hate to see what ambivalence looks like!