Switch Dribbler: It's Hard to Dribble with Your Feet by Val Priebe

I'm sitting with my friends, Josh and Tyler. Tyler plays basketball. He is the team's best shooter.

I play basketball, too. I'm known for my dribbling skills. I keep total control of the ball, no matter what.

"Carmen, we asked you if you were going to go out for a fall sport," Tyler says.

"She's going out for soccer," says a voice behind me.

Huh? Lynsey, Carmen's best friend,  sits down and starts the hard sell to get her to join the Victory School soccer team. She makes it sound like a good idea, being a teammate with her best friend. Mom and Dad agree that it is a good idea to try out new things, and together they fill out her permission slip.

But tying on her first set of cleats, Carmen begins to get cold feet. She's really good at dribbling a basketball--but that is with her hands. Can she learn to dribble a soccer ball between her feet in time to help the school team? After all, Lynsey has been playing soccer since she was three. Of course, it seems easy to her!

At her first practice, trying to control the ball with her feet feels all wrong to Carmen. And although her coach is encouraging, while she is in the locker room after practice she overhears two girls on the team talking.

"I don't know why they let new people join teams anyway." one girl is saying.

It's not like we came to Victory to try new sports!"

I try not to let what I heard bother me. I just have to work extra hard.

And Carmen's extra practice pays off when she is called in to sub for one of the stars and manages to dribble downfield and kick a goal in the first game.

As Carmen learns in Val Priebe's It's Hard to Dribble with Your Feet (Sports Illustrated Kids Victory School Superstars) (Sports Illustrated Kids/Stone Arch Book), it can be good to try new things. After all, soccer is just a game, and the thing is to have fun playing it.