Prologue
This year has been one of change. I suppose I could say growth, but I don’t want to be too presumptuous or cliche. Earlier in the year, inspired by Aiden, I started a couch to 5K routine that is now a (roughly) four times per week habit. More recently, again inspired by Aide, I coached for his soccer team in our town recreational league.
Journal
Aiden has played soccer since he was in preschool. There have been changes through the years. The players have changed as they’ve grown, dropped out, joined other rec leagues, and started to play for their middle and high schools. Liam and Quinn, for example, both decided that soccer wasn’t their thing. The coaches have changed with their kids. Heck, the entire association has even changed from school district funded to parent funded.
Aiden has been ther through it all. Spring and Fall, every year, he has played soccer. That means, of course, that Christine and I have been there, too. We have cheered through heartbreaking losses and thrilling shoot out championship victories. From 90 plus degrees to spring and autumn rain storms and even the occasional day cold enough for sleet, we have seen every one of his games.
I am a fan of soccer. Along with hockey and basketball, it is one of my favorite sports to watch. I only mention this part because I have always been vocal at the games. I’m not the screaming, abusive parent, but I do like to “help” the kids out as much as I can during the game. This habit led several other parents to suggest that I coach. I declined because I know nothing about coaching. I don’t know how to run practice. I don’t know how to manage rosters. I can’t motivate. So, I continued my position as unofficial assistant coach.
Until this year. For some reason, when Aiden asked me this year, I finally said yes. Maybe he caught me off guard and I said “yes” when I meant “no”. More likely, I hoped they’d say, “No thanks, we are all set on coaches.” Sadly, they responded that they’d love to have me as a coach. At least I would get to coach Aiden’s team. A plus due to familiarity. Then again, there is the saying about familiarity breeding contempt.
I am happy to report that no contempt was bred. However, my lack of experience was a definite liability early in the season. I missed the first practice because of a conflict, then said before our first game to a friend, “I have a pretty good team. Pretty much just have to point ’em at the goal and let ’em go.” That proved to be a terrible assessment and we lost our first game 7-1 or something along those lines.
And, so, faced with practice after such a tremendous defeat, I did what probably no other coach would do. I just let them play. They passed to one another, took shot after shot at the goal with me playing keeper, and had fun in general. Recognizing my inexperience, the program director stepped in to save me and my team from myself. He ran a couple of drills with them. I tried to remain relevant to the practice by playing defense against them during their offensive drills.
Something seemed to have clicked during that practice. They played very well in the game following and only lost due to an overly punitive hand ball, as I wrote in my Facebook post after the game. I started to wonder if we might ever win a game all season. Quite the change from “point them at the goal and let them go”, for sure.
As the season wore on, I got better about running practices. I started to recognize what each player’s strengths and weaknesses were. Practically every single player showed up for every practice and game and they were all dedicated to improving themselves and their teammates. We finally did win 2 games, I think. We definitely won once and tied 3 or 4 others. Our final game before the “playoffs” was a tie against the team that beat us so badly in the first game, so it all came full circle.
I put “playoffs” in quotes because it was only a tournament in name. I figured out after the 3rd or 4th game that it literally didn’t matter if we won or lost with respects to the playoffs because the match ups were already set. So, the whole team arrived for the final day of the season with the understanding that all they had to do was win 2 games that day and they’d be champions.
They won the first game 2-1 and played their best game of the season. They talked to one another, made good passes, worked together on defense, and were supportive. They lost the second game by the same 2-1 margin, but the game was called (prematurely in my opinion) while we had possession in the offensive zone and were driving to the net. Oh well, it is only a rec league. The atmosphere of the day made it that much more fun as parents yelled and cheered for their kids, both teams showed great sportsmanship during and after the game, and it actually made me feel like I was going to miss coaching.
Epilogue
Maybe I should say that it made me feel like I might miss coaching. In all reality, I probably won’t miss coaching, per se, but it did end up being a fun experience. I got to meet and work with some great kids that I don’t get to do as much anymore because I’m teaching college. I got to put my terrible coaching skills into practice. But, I did learn from my mistakes and will be able to better focus my next team, I’m sure.
During the season Christine asked if I would consider helping out with the winter “skills and drills” season. Again, caught off guard and meaning to say “no”, I actually said “yes”. I guess I should thank Aiden for inspiring me to be a better person. He got me to run. He got me to spend time coaching and helping kids. In spite of what my father in law used to say, he’s turning out to be a pretty good kid.