Yesterday was the start of the transition to fall better know as soccer season. My youngest who is the most natural future athlete of the family starts her second season in a row with her grasshopper coach while my very artistic one who is only there for the socialization is about to start a third year in a row with a different coach. Although she expressed she is ready to play this time, I was cautious to see how this coach would be.
The first year my middle daughter did soccer, the coach was more interested in her dad being a soccer referee than our player on his team. During game time it was clear to me that he was more focus on a certain player, his own kid. My daughter spent more time picking dandelions and playing cheetahs with the other kids who had extremely less playing time than the coach’s child. I fully recognized what talents that she had and what skills needed some work. It was very likely he did not know all his players’ names and to be honest with a run-in the following year, he likely didn’t care either. This coach expressed his surprise that she would attempt to play again and that she moved up.
The second year, my daughter moved up the ladder to the league under eight years old. We expected that we would have a new coach and although we were extremely nervous about her limited skills, the second coach was a great experience. He was a Sunday school teacher at our church and his daughter was perfect social match to ours. The girls got along great and the coach tried to teach our middle daughter skills while being patient. He knew when to push without upsetting her. His kid is in the same grade and we figured that he would coach again this year until we told they were not doing soccer this year.
When we went to the field last night with the clear cut explanation that we would have another coach. The new coach as we quickly learned, used to do grasshopper and his coaching staff have been together for years. Not only were they great with explaining and working with kids, one of the coaches took the time to introduce himself. Our middle daughter received praise and looked like she had finally caught up on her skills. We were even told the newer players were lucky to have an experienced player like her to look up to this year.
As we got into the car to go home, my middle daughter was smiling. She stated that she did her best and that she was good at playing now. Here’s to a hopeful soccer season ahead of us!
