Common Kicks: Cambridge Youth Soccer

Saturday mornings during the fall, nearly 100 soccer players take over the Cambridge Common. Although most of these weekend athletes are no more than four-and-a-half feet tall, they run, jump, kick and shout with an intensity which belies their size. Watched by cheering parental fans, as well as entranced passers-by, and egged on by screaming coaches, the kids of the Cambridge Youth Soccer League combine grown-up determination with youthful nonchalance.

Despite coaching by parents or, in some cases, by Harvard students, the seven-and eight-year-olds' preferred strategy of play is a sophisticated form of 'migration ball.' Running from one end of the field to the other, the entire team follows the course of the ball. While decreasing the number of players who actually handle the ball, this method increases the number who may hope to handle it. And to a seven-year-old, that hope is the key to the game.