It was a picture of family togetherness.

About 45 minutes into a pickup soccer game at the South Whidbey Parks and Recreation fields Monday night, high school sophomore Rita Jones took her 17-year-old brother, Tor, out at the ankles with a snappy slide tackle.

Ten minutes later, Tor handed out the punishment when he and his father, Glenn, collided at midfield while going after a goalkeeper’s punt. The smack up left the older Jones bleeding slightly from his brow and the younger looking a bit sheepish and guilty.

Believe it or not, this is what the Jones’ and a few other dozen soccer players call fun. For the fifth summer in a row, all-comer pickup soccer games at the park are the place and time for soccer players of all ages to kick the ball around. The games are also a challenge, both in terms of skill and courtesy.

Monday’s game was a perfect example. Twenty-six players, ranging in age from 11 to 50-something, picked sides then hit the field for an hour of soccer. The challenge for anyone watching this melee was to see the games within the game. Cagey veterans like Glenn Jones, John Koska and Joel Gerlach challenged the half dozen high school boys who showed up for the game, playing off experience and treachery against pure speed and endurance. Elsewhere on the field, soccer moms who have started playing the game in recent years or weeks tried to keep up with their kids and each other. In both cases, success was limited at times.

“He’s too fast for me,” said fourth-year player and soccer mom Jane Gerlach, who didn’t have much luck squaring off against her 14-year-old son, John.

Not that the older players let that get them down. The pickup games, which are held Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:30 p.m., are just for fun. Everyone gets a chance to play and to sharpen his or her soccer skills against almost any caliber of player. Nancy Bartlett, who like Gerlach has been a soccer mom for years, said the itch to play got the better of her a few years ago. Now she happily ventures onto the field to take on kids less than half her age.

“It’s the only way I can stay in shape, and that’s to have a white ball in front of me,” she said.

Lindsey Anderson has a similar point of view. Playing for just six weeks, she is set to join a women’s over-30 team later this summer.

“There are just a bunch of us moms who’ve gotten burnout just watching,” she said.

Since no one is keeping score and because teams change from game to game, the only rivalries on the field are those the players create between themselves. Eleven-year-old Evan Ameluxen-Coleman is happy to take any opportunity to note how much better he is at the game than his father, Ed Coleman. Though a bit ball shy against high school and masters-level players on the field, Ameluxen-Coleman has no trouble taking on bigger, older players, including his dad.

“It’s kind of intimidating, but it helps me get better,” he said.

Ed Coleman said he doesn’t mind getting beaten.

“It’s a good way to be out playing with my son,” he said.

Joel Gerlach, who has played in the pickup games since they started, said the soccer get togethers have become the thing to do for players during the summer. The games even attract players from Seattle and, recently, a family visiting from Scotland.

Veteran players at the games are expected to defer at times to less-experienced players to make certain everyone on the field has a chance to move the ball around.

“New people will always get at least a couple touches on the ball,” Gerlach said.

The games have proven to be a gateway to tougher league play for many of those who show up. This fall, the first South Whidbey women’s team ever will form out of the ranks of the pickup games, while several of the men at the field will wind up travelling to the Seattle area to compete against recently graduated college soccer players.

But for now, it’s all in fun. Just ask the Jones’.