4 and 1!

Coach Kelly managed to orchestrate another win Saturday morning, guaranteeing that the "Green Snakes" will finish above .500 this season. We didn't deserve the win this time - and I felt a little guilty as I stacked my team (putting my 3 best players in at forward all at the same time) in the fourth quarter with us down 1 - 0. "It's not about winning, it's about having fun!" that's what we are supposed to tell the kids. And the other team had moved the ball down the field and passed effectively the whole game. I can't seem to get my kids to work together - and last week Todd overheard one kid complain to another "coach is putting us both in, but she said we have to pass it."

I enjoy coaching, but I think I would enjoy it more with older kids, or maybe if I had an assistant at practices. I inevitably lose control about 3/4 of the way through practice and on game day they are all begging to play midfielder or goal keeper the entire game. The concept of team seems to be above the heads of these 6,7 and 8 year olds. The gap in skills and maturity between a 6 year old and an 8 year old is another part of what makes it hard to run practices. Either the drills are over the heads of the little ones or they are boring to the big ones - it's tricky to find a balance. But I had a great conversation with the losing coach after Saturday's game, and he gave me a few new ideas.

We play a lot of our games at Velasko Road, which was Faith Heritage's home field back in the day, and as I was warming my team up I thought "I would have made it as a keeper if we had used these goals - I don't even have to jump to touch the cross bar"

So, my team doesn't totally suck and most of them seem to be having fun most of the time. But really, deep down in my heart, it is really about winning!