Colton's Coach

Through the years, as we've had the boys in various sports, I've thought about trying my hand at coaching. For the younger kids, you really don't need to know that much about the sport, but soccer actually is something I have some experience in. I played it all through my elementary and middle school years, and even spent a summer in an adult league a couple years ago. I almost volunteered during Keaton's last soccer season, but the main thing standing in the way is scheduling conflicts. With FOUR boys in sports this Spring, I was sure there would be some scheduling conflicts. And I'd purposely signed up Colton and Cooper with friends, so that I could just send them if Callahan and Keaton's basketball games overlapped with scheduled soccer. Our mornings were crazy, with Callahan, Keaton and Cooper all having overlapping games somewhere between 9:00-12:00, but Colton's games were during the week or later in the afternoon on Saturday. So after the first couple games, when the coach asked for someone to take over the team, I thought this would be a good time to try it out.

It was a good experience. Often from the sidelines I know I've thought "Oh, the coach isn't giving the kids equal playing time" or "he should pull out our best kids and give the other team a chance to score" ... so now I got a chance to do just that. Trying to rotate the kids in and out? That was hard to keep track of, everything was hard to keep track of there in the middle of it all ("oh, you just scored a goal, good job!") Sometimes I do get frustrated with lack of communication (practice/games being canceled and not getting a call) and felt like I did well there ... maybe I'll offer to be TeamMom, get out the treat schedule and be in charge of reminder calls and such. While I've been slow to start texting, I can see that texts are a wonderful way for a coach to contact the team.

So, the final game was the final day of May, and I have to admit being a little glad it's done *Ü* It was fun, but I think I'm ready to return to the sidelines ... with camera in hand of course! Here's one more little soccer video, Callahan was behind the camera as I was on the field, only fair as I've filmed a TON of his games!