Football, with the feet

I've always wondered why it is that Americans call their autumnal sport "football", given that it seems to use almost as little foot-ball action as basketball and baseball do (and at least in those sports, bases and baskets are important). And it does get in the way of communicating with most of the rest of the world, for whom futbol is another sport entirely.

Some decades ago, the US government passed "Title IX" (that's 'nine', not 'ix'), outlawing the practice of denying any aspect of the educational experience to any group: and in particular this has been taken to mean: if schools or colleges spend money on a sport for boys or men, then they have to provide comparable opportunities for girls or women. This has led to a boom in opportunities for women to participate in sports, and one sport that has boomed as a result is soccer. This was evident in 96 and many of the subsequent years with the US team's strength in women's soccer.

And as a consequence it is easy to find soccer lessons and clubs for small children (and refreshingly they are gender non-specific). Boo and Skibo started this afternoon, with their first experience playing the game at the local "Y". Apparently they were fantastic (I was home making dinner while LOML took them to play --- we take turns getting to take them to this sort of thing), listening well to instruction, playing hard, and really doing very well with things like ball control, trapping the ball, stopping and starting, etc.

Of course, with soccer twice a week, gymnastics once a week, ballet once a week, we are already well on the way to the classic US overscheduled children. And they are only five and three. How do we regain control? We can't cancel dance or gymnastics. And with soccer, they are literally having a ball.

Yours, spinning,
N.