Monday, November 17, 2008

Sock Her? Oh - Soccer.

This weekend was the last weekend for soccer. Unfortunately, it rained all night on Friday and the weather forecast for Saturday was more of the same along with heavy wind. I called the weatherline and all games were cancelled with no scheduled make-ups. Boooo!!! My daughter's team was scheduled to play a crappy team and I was looking forward to the win.

So here is wrap-up for the season. I think my son's team won all but 1 game. And we pretty much destroyed everyone we played. I had one player that we'd let get 3 goals in the first 25 seconds of the game and then I'd have to stick him in goal and as a fullback for the rest of the game. This kid was so good that he could score from behind the mid-field line. I'm sure he'll be on the travel team next year. And I think we got really lucky. We had 15 really good boys on the team that played hard and were talented. Every team that I've coached before had at least one slug and one La Idiota. Though I must say that I did have a couple of block heads, but they were still decent kids.

My girls' team was a lot of fun. The girls are older (age 8-10), so unlike the boys, they have personalities and you can have conversations with them. And when you talk to them and try to teach them a new skill, you can tell when they understand. The only thing that drove me a little bit nuts was that out of 13 girls, 11 of them are Type A and loud and wanting to be the center of attention. If you were on the soccer field and ever heard, "GIRLS - EYES AND EARS!!!!" then you know you were near my team. But all-in-all they were a great bunch of kids.

Our record was not that impressive. We were 2-4-4, 2 wins, 4 losses, and 4 ties. But had we played the sucky team 2 more times like we were supposed to, we would have ended the season 4-4-4, a much more respectable record. Now that I have a year as a head coach under my belt, I think I am better able to run a team. It's really not as easy as I thought it would be.

I got a lot of positive feedback from the kids, too. I had one girl tell me that I was a lot cooler than her father. Not exactly the kind of thing you want a kid saying about their parent, but I appreciated the sentiment. And this morning I got the following email from one of the parents:

Coach Eludius,

I am sure you hear it all the time; you have an amazing coaching style.
You did such a great job motivating the girls without being too firm.
The girls responded well to this style. My daughter had even mentioned
that she thought you were "very cool". Too many times coaches forget
that the whole point of the game is for the kids to have fun, and they
get way too much into the game. But you found a nice balance on trying
to get them to do what they needed and gently getting that point across.

So, thank you so much for making this season so enjoyable for both my
daughter and her parents. I hope we get you again for next year if you
decide to coach again.

Sincerely,

A Parent

It really makes you feel good when you get positive response like this. And at the Soccer Party yesterday, I was awarded with 3 $25 gift certificates - one to the Noodle Company and one to Famous Dave's and one to Chili's, three of my favorite fine dining places. Yes, I don't get out much.

So if you have kids or when you have kids, don't be afraid to get out there and be a coach. You don't have to know what you're doing. Do like I did and just fake it! (which makes me wonder why more women don't coach - I'm kidding!!!)

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