It's soccer time again!! This year, during the registration process, I decided to apply to be an assistant coach for Colby's team. I have been unimpressed with his last two coaches, and although I am in no way a great coach, I knew that I could at least help structure a practice and make sure it was engaging and fun for the kids. The director, Jeremy Reese, emailed me the volunteer application and it was 5 pages long, haha! They used to only allow members of their church to coach, but as the league has grown, they have opened up the coaching opportunity to non-members. But they still wanted to maintain their Christian devotionals, etc, hence the application. I wasn't however, expecting such an intense application. It asked all sorts of questions about your belief system, how often you attended worship services, personality questions, and a final page with a written testimony. I assumed I wouldn't get selected because I circled the box that I didn't believe in the trinity, but then I WAS selected :)
I attended the coach's meeting, where I met the girl I was assigned to coach with. It turns out that Lyndsey is a member of one of the Mansfield wards, so I assumed he put us together since we attend the same church. She was nice, but I quickly learned that our styles are completely different! She is much more a "wing it" sort of person, which is exactly the opposite of how I function. I think I stressed her out with how much I texted her about a plan for our first practice, but I was a little nervous and wanted it to go well. Especially since she didn't want to be "the coach", but rather us to both be in charge. And I'm glad I did because she was almost 15 minutes late to practice.
I surprised myself with how naturally I was able to get things going, but the unknown of a new role was pretty scary for me. I kind of second guessed my decision to coach, especially when I realized how much I would miss the little things, like taking pictures during practice. I was so busy trying to keep the players organized and on task, that I hardly could even watch Colby's little face.
Thankfully, Kevin took a few pictures, but they weren't the pictures I normally took.
The first week was practice only, but we had our little devotional afterwards, complete with snack and the picking of a team name. Almost every kid had their own idea, and trying to get them to vote on one of the three I narrowed it down to was nearly impossible. The kids were so sidetracked with their new jerseys, trying to put on their new socks, etc, so I just announced that we would be the Red Dinos.
We headed straight over to Brooke's practice, and I loved watching her with her old coach and team again. Most everyone from last season (minus Jorge and Brooks) were still on the team, plus a new boy named Deacon and our friends Lucy and Adelaide (who was on Colby' s team last season). I think having a bunch of familiar faces was really reassuring for Brooke, and I enjoyed catching up with the other parents again.
And I had my chance to take a few adorable pictures of Colby (and Daddy).
Brooke's coach, Shane Owens, had all sorts of great drills for the kids, but I shockingly didn't take many pictures. Most everyone was so far off the sidelines and I didn't want to be on the field like a crazy person, haha. But I did creep out there for a bit to take some videos!
Going in for a team cheer at the end...
The next week was Spring Break, and the league wasn't hosting practices or games, but Coach Owens hosted an optional practice. Almost everyone showed up and the kids had a blast. Brooke totally impressed me with her ball handling, and I think she felt pretty confident about her progress.
In Brooke's mind, Lucy (#4) is the best girl on the team, and since Brooke is my competitive girl, she pushed herself anytime they faced off in drills. Kevin later told me that there was a bit of playful smack-talking between the two girls, which the Coach heard, and then made a big deal about their next face-off. And Brooke beat Lucy to the ball, so you know she talked about that for days.
It was a chilly morning, but the players ran hard for almost an hour and a half, so they were excited about cooling off with ice pops.
We were supposed to have our first game on the 21st, but a lot happened the week after Spring Break. Schools were cancelled (due to the novel corona-virus, COVID-19), church was done at home, and people everywhere were freaking out. I will post more about this later, but soccer was still going to happen, until the rain got in the way early that Saturday morning. I think the way it all turned out was really good because a few days later our county issued a shelter-in-place order, and the importance of people practicing the principle of social distancing was emphasized.
As a result, Jeremy called all the coaches and asked them to hold a Zoom conference call with their players to touch base, have a "team meeting", and go over the weekly devotional, At first, I thought it seemed pretty silly. I assumed that everyone knew that circumstances were totally unprecedented, and that we should just accept that this season just might not happen. Jeremy expressed his feelings that the main goal of this league is to share God's love with these kids and as such, he wanted the coaches to carry on this vital part of the league. Lyndsey and I texted back and forth, then reached out to our parents. Total crickets, haha. Like, nobody responded that they were interested at all. Several days later, Lyndsey reached out again and two parents commented that they could "try" to make it.
Well, in the end, it was Lyndsey and her girls, me and Colby, and little Aiden. But hey, we tried, so that counts, right? It only took a few minutes and I am hoping next week a few more parents make it possible for their kiddos to be "present".
And this is how my first coaching season is going, haha. I really don't know if I will coach again because I underestimated how much I would feel like I was missing my soccer mom role. So, this is it, unless we miraculously get back out on those fields in the next few weeks.
