We had our first soccer practice of the season back on March 7th, and then the corona virus took over and everything was in a stand still. Schools closed down, our church meetings were cancelled world wide, and stay at home orders went into effect. It was only supposed to last two weeks, but when they extended it another two weeks, the soccer director, Jeremy Reese, reached out to the coaches and asked them to connect with their players each week via video chat and work through the devotionals and give them drills to work on. I thought the whole thing seemed silly. I mean, everyone was in the same boat and they would understand why our season was put on hold, but Jeremy sent out a few emails reminding us that the whole reason they do this league is to connect with the players and teach them about Christ. I admire their mission, but again, it seemed a little silly to try to move forward with a "season" amid the pandemic.
My co-coach Lyndsey also thought it was silly, but I wanted to follow through with what he was asking us to do, so I reached out to our team to coordinate a Zoom meeting. Only two parents responded, but we did the call anyway and only one other family logged into the call. I made the executive decision that I would just record myself giving the devotional and send it out for them to watch at their convenience. Lyndsey did the same with soccer drills. The videos only had two views, and one of them was mine, so I kind of lost motivation to continue with everything.
Jeremy put together "soccer survival kits" for each player with a ball, cones, and some fun candy, so Lyndsey and I delivered them to our players. I still checked in with the team and tried to find out how the families were doing, etc, but that was it.
None of us really thought that we would get back out there on the field, but as we approached June and businesses were opening up, certain sports were given the clearance to start and Jeremy organized a "Soccer Season Finale", if you will :) Basically, one last practice with the team and free snow cones from Kona Ice.
I reached out to our team and it seemed like most of the families felt comfortable attending. Most of Brooke's team responded that they would be there as well. I was disappointed that they never actually played a game, but one last practice was better than nothing.
Lyndsey didn't feel comfortable attending since she's 16 weeks pregnant, so I was on my own for coaching. We kept things simple and tried to have fun together as a team. I don't think I will coach again, even though I know this season didn't really count, but I had fun being out there on the field with my little dude.
The biggest bummer for me this season was Brooke not having the chance to learn from her coach, Shane Owens. He was amazing with her the last two seasons and I felt confident that she was going to progress a lot during this season. He encouraged us to move her to a competitive league and is doing the same with his son in the Fall. I don't know that we're ready for that, but he said that she would do really well playing on a team of all girls with a female coach.
She certainly had the competitive spirit with Lucy, haha. We know them from church, but these girls can talk smack out there on the field. Lucy is a bruiser and although Brooke is normally not as assertive, she puts it all out there with Lucy. I guess she has a little bit more competitive nature in her than we originally thought.
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