The kid with the ball is Andrew, my girlfriend’s oldest son. He’s playing in the season ending 2011 Champlain Township Soccer League Tournament for 4- 6-year olds at the Champlain Township Community Centre in Vankleek Hill. It’s not an ending most parents celebrated. Ninety minutes of soccer under a hot sun, and a good case of heat stroke, has an almost pharmaceutical effect on sedating kids, in that they end their games groggy, kind of floppy and mumbling stuff about 9-11 conspiracies.

Andrew scored four goals in this game. His confidence level is way up from last year, when he’d let other kids take the ball from him. Eventually he’ll have T-Ball to wear himself out with, thankfully, but kids mostly just stand around or sit for an hour. Dammit, we need better drugs (in the form of sports) for our kids.