Can nice girls excel at competitive soccer?

I think so.

Tori is trying out for Division 3 soccer. We'll know in the next few days if she made the cut.

During the first round of tryouts, last weekend, I noticed that five girls from our Girls Leadership Workshop were there. How great would it be to have a team of all GLI graduates? The kids would get along fabulously and the parents would not tolerate any girl drama. Of course this will never happen but it's a nice fantasy.

Rachel Simmons' workshops are returning to our suburb in October. We should have our original, brilliant facilitator, GLI assistant director Julia Loonin.

There are two sessions -- one for grades 2 & 3 and one for grades 4 & 5. Each workshop is four weeks long and it's for 1.5 to 2 hours each week. The younger girls are Tuesday evenings, the older girls are Thursday evenings. As I type this, they are about half full.

We got so much out of this. We now know about part-time friends, how to confidently respond to or walk away from a bullying situation, and how and when to apologize. We know why girls are aggressive and how to diffuse them. We know the power of using body language to reinforce our words. The kids especially loved the role play because they could play out real situations in a safe environment. Just today The Pinks used the double apology technique during an argument.

As an aside, I don't profit from this other than helping to shape a community we're proud to be a part of, and one that will be easier for our daughters, and for our families.