Elena's Soccer Season

This spring Elena brought home forms for T-ball and soccer registration. Last summer soccer camp was a horrible failure, so I started signing her up for T-ball online. Just before I clicked "finish," I checked to make sure she wanted to play. "No, I want to play soccer!" she said. I texted Karen to give her an update.

Me: E wants to play soccer.
K: Do they have tryouts?
Me: No, everyone gets to play.
K: Too bad, that would have been an easy out.

So I signed her up for U6 soccer.  Months go by. Finally, just before the season is scheduled to start, I get The Email. Our kids won't be able to play unless they have a coach. I waited a while, then volunteered to be an assistant coach. I guess they took that to mean I would be THE coach.

My soccer experience includes a camp in which I sucked (much like Sprout) and recess games with teams predetermined by race. The point of the game was to start a fight. I did split my head open in the 5th grade making a sweet save as goalie once.

Fortunately I have some dad friends who have been thrust into the same situation. Matt Dare, in particular, was a great resource. With his assistance, and a certification from YouTube University, I set forth.

 

We bought Elena the essential soccer stuff. Cleats are not required, and Karen was hesitant to buy some for E because she sucked and would only use them for 2 months. I bought them anyway.

When we played our first game, we were seriously out-coached. The other coach was an expert and I was still figuring out the rules.  I remember thinking to myself that I should request that coach for Elena next year.... if she continued to play.

After the first game, things improved dramatically. The girls really developed well and started kicking butt. In most games, I had to figure out how to avoid completely humiliating the other team. On one end of the field we had Priscilla the super star. This was a common site; her with the ball and nobody in front of her.

Three defenders? No problem. She still scored.

On the other side of the field, we had Summer, "The Wall." At least when she wasn't hanging on the goal or making poop jokes, that is. We don't have goalies for this age group, but she took pride in defending our goal at all times.

After game 6 of 8, all but two kids had scored a goal. Elena was one of them. She had some close calls, but nothing went in. Finally, in game 7, she scored. Fortunately my mom got pictures of The Goal.

 

In the final game, I made a plan with Priscilla to help the other non-scorer get a goal. She set her up beautifully, passing it to her right in front of the goal which was about 3 feet away. Samantha bounced it off the goal post. Then Elena kicked it in (one of 4 goals on the day). Sometimes you just can't win.

Here is a nice photo of the Bean men. Many thanks to my brother who was my assistant coach. I really appreciate that he donated his time.

We were very lucky in that we had a good players. Most of the girls were older and weren't afraid to get kicked in the shins in order to get the ball. I've got about half of them committed to play in the fall (yes, I'm coaching again). Looking forward to it!