From the sidelines

Ok, I may be just the mom on the sidelines, but, I'm pretty sure this isn't the right way to do it. Unless maybe it is.

Saturday started the first day of soccer league play. Brandi's first game was tonight. Last Monday I called the rec. center because we still had not heard from a coach about practice times, what team she was on, the where's and who's and all that jazz. They gave me a name and number of the coach. I called the coach. His response was the first bad sign.

"Um, ya. I guess I had better get on that, huh?"

Ok. Maybe he had something happen and is feeling a bit stressed and the summer got away from him and this week snuck up on him. It can happen. Right?

So first practice was Wed. night. I was at class, so her dad had to take her. She came home with a list of games and times (which I already had because I printed them off of the rec center website) and a list of which girl was in charge of bringing treats to which game. An important piece of information, because when you are 10, the treat is the best part.

I took Jake to get his cast on today. We got home at 5:30. Game starts at 6:30. Time to make a quick supper and head out. Good thing I stopped to check my e-mail because the girls were supposed to be there at 6 for their second practice!



Practice- 20 minutes of taking turns passing the ball back and forth to each other. Then the coach's wife asked him if he wanted the girls to kick the ball to him so he could decide what position they should play. Now, I am not the soccer expert here, far from it, but I would have assumed that he would have done that at the first practice? But then again, maybe not. Like I said, not an expert.

10 minutes later he told the girls to get a drink and head to the playing field. Brandi played forward. Matt told me it is called forward because she is close to the ball in the middle of the field when the game begins. When I asked what would qualify her to play that position he told me it was because she was one of the better players. Whitney had to ask, too. It was nice to have someone that understood the game as much as I do to sit with. (her explanation of soccer- Get the ball in the goal and stay in the white lines while you do it.)

Now I know they are only 10 and some of the girls have never played and it is supposed to be all fun and not about the winning, but shouldn't they be learning about the game and how to play together as a team? The team they were playing seemed to know what was going on. Our team? Not so much.

There was this one time, Brandi and another player were moving the ball down the field toward the goal. Brandi looked for someone to pass the ball to, down the field. The entire team was behind her. It was no suprise when the other team stole the ball. But on the upside, our team was in position to stop them from getting back down to their goal. I looked around for our coach to see why he was not directing the girls from the sideline. No where in sight. Not a clue where he was. The other girls' coach was right there giving direction, calling to them, watching, doing things that I have seen coaches do when I watch movies or pretend to watch games at the high school. You know, running around the sidelines, waving arms, yelling direction at players. That kind of thing. Our coach? Sitting under a tree in the shade.

We lost. 3-0.

Next practice? Saturday. 30 minutes before game time.

It's gonna be a long 6 weeks.

(PS, I know they are only 10, and it is all about the fun, and I am NOT one of those moms on the sidelines screaming and getting mad about the game- [and even if I was, I don't know enough about the game to] and I don't expect them to look like a well oiled pro team, but I would like the girls to win once in a while. Or score. Scoring would be nice)

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Indeed.