Fall season is almost up...

This was B at Saturday's game. They had a double play and did really well. They won the first game 3-1! They were a little tired by the second game, but still managed to tie that game 3-3, though I thought the game was 4-2...

My team won their game 3-1! The other team only got the 1 goal because of a penalty goal kick. One of my boys accidentally tripped one of their boys in the goal area and that's a no-no. It definitely wasn't intentional (as I've seen on some teams) since the boy who did it is about J's size and no mean bone in his body! They pretty much ran into each other and feet were tangled, but since it was the opposing team trying to score a goal, it was called on us. Oh, well. The boys learned something that day and that's what we want the games to do for them.

We had a meeting scheduled this evening about the future of our soccer association. It was for all parents and coaches involved, to discuss any issues, present any suggestions, etc. Only about 35 people showed up and most of those were coaches...I was very disappointed that out of approximately 450 kids that play in this organization only a handful of parents that don't coach, were actually there. This is strictly a volunteer organization. We want it to grow for the benefit of the children. We are trying to get more improvements for the field. Things just don't appear without any effort!

At the beginning of the season one of the boys asked me, "Coach, how much do you get paid to be here?" I replied, "Absolutely zero." and he just looked at me and smiled. I should have also said the following to them: "I get paid by seeing you learn, by seeing you enjoying yourself out there. I get paid when you say thanks coach, when your hollaring for me, glad to see me as I'm walking to the field for practice or games. When you're happy that you scored or when you're learning a new concept and all of a sudden you get it! I get paid when you high five me and your team mates after a good play, a goal made, or a great block was made against the other team. I get paid when you all are showing team work together and compassion towards your other less experienced team players by helping them to understand their positions. I will get paid when you are happy with the season you played and want to return again next year." I am truely enjoying coaching these kids!

"Noooo we don't want to stop!"

That was the statement made by the kids this afternoon after practice! I love that! I guess we're doing ok then with coaching and though they are tired, they are still having fun. Today Steve was finally able to come and help and they seemed to like him. My husband really enjoyed the politeness of some of the boys and remarked on them during dinner. He loved how they all seemed to get right in there and really practice hard. We've got a great group...still they are boys and do get silly sometimes, but they normally straighten up with a little reprimand. Of course the few that keep it up, found out that coach will assign laps and truly make them run them, while dribbling their balls ;-) LOL.

Oh and I wanted to add that I have a great group of parents. They help when they can, make sure their kids behave, listen and respect each other, cheer for each of them and try and help keep them focused during the games, and get them to practice on time! Great parents make coaching a lot easier and more enjoyable! THANKS PARENTS!

I laughed last week though when one of the boys asked me, "Coach, how much do you get paid to be here". I told him that we coaches are volunteers. That means that we do not get paid to coach them. He looked at me like he didn't believe me at first, but then I asked if he would he please step off my cone since I paid for those myself and would like them to last the season. LOL!

Soccer...

I'm enjoying coaching so far...my parents are great, but some parents can sure be harsh. I mean come on, this is a game, it's supposed to be fun for the kids. I actually had to turn to one dad on another team after he was bashing the coach during a game, "that I sure didn't see any people lined up to coach any of our U-10 teams. In fact out of 8 teams in the U-10 division, only three people had taken the positions by the time I came along, 2 for the girls and 1 for the boys. As a matter of a fact for the boys, we didn't have enough coaches and so we split the last team up between the four with coaches". He didn't say much afterwards towards my direction. If they want to complain, then go and do a better job and volunteer next time! Of course everyone is entirely 'too busy'...good grief.

I did get to watch B's second game last Saturday. She did really great; she really got out there and tried hard to work with her team. She assisted another player in making a goal and was excited about that. She talked about it all day long and for a few days later! She has a tendency to obsess about things and talk about them constantly for days on end, LOL. She also looked so cute out there in her uniform.

Here she is up in front to the right of the ball. She sure kicked that ball right after I snapped that picture.

Jamboree Day!

Our Jamboree went pretty well considering the condition of the field we had to play on (it had rained quite a bit the night before). I also had the time of our first game wrong (I thought it was 10:30) but had instructed the parents of the kids to be there at 10:15. They would have all been on time for the game, had they all showed up as instructed. As it was, they trickled in and we had to start the game with only 5 kids. They played the first almost 20 minutes themselves and I was a bit upset that they were putting in their all and the rest of the parents hadn't showed up with their children. Most of them were there by 10:40. I don't think they realize that the children end up suffering the consequences of their tardiness since if they aren't there on time, then we risk forfeiting the game for lack of players. The referees can't wait for them to show...

Anyways...back to the games. We played two games, the first we lost 4-2. They sure tried hard and blocked a bunch of goals, they did so well for a team short of half the players. The second game we played we won 2-0. They blocked 7 goals of the other team; we have an excellent defender and two great goalies already! It's amazing watching them help each other out there and learning things as they played.

What have I gotten myself into?

J plays soccer where we live. He seems to enjoy it and it gives him an outlet to burn off some energy during the week. This will be his 3rd year. Hopefully I won't be getting shots of him looking up at the planes overhead or picking blades of grass, as I have in previous years (see pic at left!), LOL!

He is playing in the U-10 league. He missed the U-8 cut off by 2 weeks. He is going to be the tiniest U-10 kid out there! He's tough though. Last year he got socked in the face with the ball and also in the stomach. He did cry a little (but then again so would I if it were me!), but after he recouped, he went back out and played.

Well it's that time of year again and they are in desperate need of coaches. They had a coaches meeting last night at the library and I decided to go at the last minute. I got to hear that they have over 400 kids registered and plan to have more than that since some people register late. There are 5 U-10 boys teams and 3 U-10 girls teams. So far there was only 1 coach for the boys teams. As I listened to all the effort that was put into this league (which is all voluntary), I just couldn't sit there (well I guess I could, but I would have felt guilty) knowing that I could possibly fit another activity into my already busy world and didn't really want to yet...just chicken I guess!

But when they asked if there were any that were hesitant about coaching and would like training to do so, my arm and hand slowly went up...BAD ARM!

So I am now the coach of my son's U-1o league. Right now I have 10 players 4 of which played together last year and I know their families. I will probably have a few more since we may not have enough coaches and so they'll have to disperse a team or two onto the others. Looks like I also have a set of twins on my team...I hope they aren't identical and if they are they have some identifying feature that I can tell them apart...if not, the poor kids, I'll probably be calling them each others names the whole season!

Wish me luck! I think I'm going to need it! LOL!