Soccer is a fun sport to coach and especially fun to coach when the kids are little. I am coaching the five and under team this year, and always love the first couple of games where the kids don’t seem to know what to do. And they hesitate, even if they aren’t picking the dandelions and stuffing them into the waistbands of their too big shorts. They don’t seem to understand why all their parents are screaming at them to take the ball from the other kids and run away with it. They look perplexed, stunned, and even afraid. It makes them run slower, because their heads are cranked toward the spectators trying to decipher the messages that they cannot believe they are hearing.
When you think that from the minute they were able to interact with other children, their parents were constantly issuing orders like, ‘don’t take away someone else’s toys’, and ‘share’ and, ‘be nice’, it’s not at all surprising that they hesitate on the field. They look at us like we are from another planet, and we do not speak the same language.
Luckily though, kids adapt quickly and by about the third game most have begun to understand that on the field, there are different rules. Being nice and waiting for your turn is not encouraged here. My team all try hard and give it a good effort, but unlike on other teams that we have been facing, we do not have an obvious superstar who stands out from the rest with his/her ability to take the ball at every turn and break away and score. It is not easy being a team that rarely scores. The kids really do not like it. And it is sad because they try so hard!
On Saturday’s game, 5 of my players were absent and that left us with my twins, and one other boy. The other team had a full roster, and on each shift change, they rotated on fully rested, tall, fast soccer players, while I poured water on the heads of my two exhausted, hot and sweaty children and encouraged all three kids to get out there and run some more and ‘oh boy, isn’t this fun to get to play the whole game with no substitutions!!!!’ I think the other coach specifically played his team that way to have one strong player on each shift, among the other players who basically ran behind the pack, in the general direction, and never got close to the ball. I have to admit that when I saw the other coach unfold his long, attached, professional looking team chairs as I was unfolding the team blanket, I knew we were in trouble.
My team of three, exhausted, uninspired children ran up and down the field time and again and tried SO HARD to get that ball. And they actually did, lots of times, but then one tall, well rested kid on each shift always took it and ran and scored. Gregory eventually managed to hoof it into the net when our team got it down field and boy was he proud. As is expected with twins, Sabrina was not at all impressed and stomped around with arms crossed on her chest complaining that she didn’t want to play anymore, even throwing herself onto the team blanket at half time and asking if it was over yet. The other team ran around on the field like energetic, well rested kids and practiced while my team waited for their breathing to slowly return to normal and their faces faded from tomatoe red to pink.
A lovely lady from the opposing team came over and twice congratulated us on our playing effort. While I accepted her congratulations with appreciation, my team remained stony faced. We lost, again. It was nice of this lady to cheer us on though, our one and only fan, and wouldn’t you know it, she was the grandmother of the other team’s star player! Obviously her comments were guilt driven, but I accepted them just the same!
