LET's GO TIGERS!! :)

So, I sent Derek to sign Henry up for soccer this year............and then ended up being the coach! Thanks a lot bud! lol No it wasn't ALL his fault, they called and asked me if I would be willing to coach. And I had like 5 minutes to think about it, and told them YES. Yeah, I know part of me is still wondering how I was able to accept. lol

I went into to the season thinking about my first year of soccer, really the only thing I remember is I was the only girl on the team.....I also thought frequently about how my mom coached me (U8) in soccer for oh, 8+ years. We were able to spend QUALITY time together, we developed many FUN memories, became great FRIENDS and we were GOOD!! I thought to myself that it would be nice to be able to make those memories with Henry.
I will admit after the first practice I went home thinking to myself, well to be honest I was speechless, but the words "Oh goodness!" came to my mind. I never understood the phrase "They're like 4-foot whirling dervishes. I don't even know what a whirling dervish is but that's what they're like." from the soccer movie 'KICKING & SCREAMING' till after my first practice, except some of my players were barely 3 foot tall. lol Derek asked how the first practice went, and I said something like ,"Well, one girl just sat and picked the grass, another girl just laid down on the grass with her eyes closed the whole time, and one little boy kept poking his fingers in the mud..." At least I didn't have a 'nose picker' right?!? Yeah I wasn't really feeling much hope! lol
After our first game, I had a glimmer of hope, and thought, "this might not be too bad, if we win just 2 games I will be happy" You see out of 8 players only 3 had played before. Henry and his 2 friends Conner and Quinn. Other than that I had 'rookies'. And they were YOUNG. The team was a U6 team so I was dealing with 5-6 year olds, and I have never really worked with kids other than my own. Young Women, yes, but not KIDS! I knew from the start that this was going to be "interesting" to say the least. I was really excited to be able to hang out with Henry, and of course lil H attended all the practices. Infact, I am sure he would have gone into the games had I let him, he seemed to know what to do, and he probably would've done a great job, plus he was the same height as half the team!

So as the season went on, I saw potential, and became a total Optimist. I will admit the first few practices were probably, not the most productive it was hard to 'try' to show or teach them something, and then you spend a good amount of time wondering if what you just showed them "registered". But, when I couldn't think of any thing else for them to do, I would just have them scrimmage for the last 20-25 minutes!!
As the season progressed so did the kids, it looked like maybe they had listened and learned at practices. They would RUN, and KICK the ball. There was no sitting on the field, or playing in the mud during the games. I especially thought it was nice, there were several games where EVERY player was able to score at least 1 goal. Seeing the smiles on these kids after scoring a goal was a nice feeling! They quickly learned that after scoring a goal they had to go back and stand around the circle. As a coach I just had to make sure they were on the correct side of the field. lol

With the experienced players, I encouraged spreading out, and passing to the other teammates so they could also score a goal. They were learning how to pass, the importance of it, but most importantly TEAMWORK. It was really cool to see them learn and grow!
Well after playing our 10 games I am happy to say that the Tigers ended the season with a 10-0 record :) And looking back I had a lot of fun, and I am hoping each kid learned something!
WAY TO GO TIGERS!!