Games and More Games

With four girls playing soccer this year, and one mom coaching a team, our life has been taken over by soccer practices and games.  Can I start by explaining how I came to be coaching a group of pee-wee soccer players when Jared is the resident soccer expert?  It's pretty simple really, I signed the kids up for soccer, but there weren't any open spaces for Natalie and Abigail to play this year.  They were put on the waiting list and we just kept hoping that spots would open up for them.  Then I got an email asking for volunteers to coach pee-wee teams which said that if I agreed to coach a team, my children on the waiting list would be guaranteed a space on a team this fall. Even better, coaches kids play for free and with four kids playing that was a $240 incentive to coach.  I tried to talk Jared into coaching, but he really is busy with church, work, and school and I just wasn't convincing enough.  Still, we wanted the girls to be able to play so I emailed back and said that if they didn't mind my lack of experience, I'd be willing to coach a team.

It's been a new experience for me; I usually don't do things that I know I'm not good at because it's just easier to stick to my strengths.  Before practices started I checked out a book from the library about coaching youth soccer and read it from cover to cover.  Before my first practice I typed up an agenda detailing exactly what we'd be doing - every minute of our hour-long practice was accounted for.  I've gotten better at running practices without such specific plans and I feel more comfortable working with my group of kids.  Natalie and Samantha are both on the team I coach and I almost feel as if it would be easier to coach a team without my own child or children on it.

Now that practices have been going on for a few weeks, we've started the season's games.  Abigail's team, the Blue Wasps (which is a really hard name to cheer from the sidelines) is doing well and she's having fun playing.  She's even made a friend on her team and she really needed a new friend  - her three closest friends moved away this summer and she's been feeling lonely and sad.

I'm not sure if Abigail has actually touched the ball during a game this year, but she has been running all over the field trying to.

Abigail (number 40) and her new friend Jessica

 Emily's team hasn't been doing so well, but I think she is still happy to be playing.  She's on a team of 13 to 15 year-olds so she's one of the smallest players on the team.  Her jersey is so big that it almost reaches her knees.  It looks pretty silly once she gets all that extra shirt tucked in.  Emily can hold her own on the field and I love seeing her push herself and improve.  Emily and her teammates chose to call themselves the Honey Badgers, which is a little easier to yell from the sidelines but I still just cheer for yellow.

Emily has been getting so much better at running up and not backing down when someone else is going for the ball

That's our Emily, number 68

I don't have any pictures of Natalie or Samantha playing soccer since I'm busy coaching during the games and Jared hasn't been able to come to any of their games yet. Their team has just enough players to field a team so everyone plays and there's no breaks except for half-time.  Samantha does pretty well and understands the rules of soccer better than some of the younger players on the team.  Natalie either runs around pulling grass out of the field and throwing it up into the air or crying because she's tired and hates soccer.  Maybe before the season is over we'll get a picture or two of our two little Sharks with their lovely coach.