Tag: coaching (Page 1 of 3)

Spring Sports, Pt. 1

April 15, 2021 / DB

We are about 10 days into the spring CYO sports schedules, which means we are at roughly the halfway point of those compact seasons. Here’s a quick look at how the family has done so far.

Both C and L are two games into their kickball seasons, with a third game rained out for each team.

L’s team is 2–0. They won their first game by 10 runs against a team that is usually pretty good. She had a magnificent day: 4–5 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. The gold star moment of that game came in the fifth inning. She came up with the bases loaded twice. Both times she kicked monster grand slams. Call her Fernando Tatis (senior), I guess!

They played again last night and romped to a 37-run win in five innings. It could have been much worse. In the top of the first our first two kickers both made outs before we scored 11-straight runs. In the third inning we went scoreless. Because of Covid the inning run rule has been bumped down from 20 to 14. They scored 13 in three innings. Seriously, they could have won by 60 under the old run rules and without that one bad inning.

L went 4–6 with two more home runs.

They play their biggest game of the year next Monday. The winner will likely be division champs and move onto the City championship in May.

C’s team is 1–1. In our first game – I am again helping to coach – we played the team that has been our nemesis for three years. The same team we beat in dramatic fashion last fall in what we thought would be the 8th graders’ final game. So of course we had to play them to start this unexpected spring season! We scored 11 in the top of the first and were never really threatened, winning by five. It was the least drama we’ve had in five or six games against this school since fifth grade. C went 3–4 with two triples and a double. The bummer about the 8th grade league is even if you kick the crap out of the ball, like she did, the defense can get it back in and hold you short of a home run. Even with her speed she got stuck on third.

Tuesday they played St L, a school that we’ve taken turns winning and losing close games against for the past four years. It was another close one, but we had a bad defensive inning in the top of the 7th and lost by seven. The head coach and I had our first run-in with an umpire this season, arguing about a rule she was interpreting incorrectly that cost us an important out. We would have lost anyway but we both get super bothered with the damn umpires don’t know the rules.

C went 3–4 again with two home runs.

So the B girls are kicking the shit out of the ball so far!

C is also playing CYO soccer. It’s become a St P’s tradition for 8th graders who either have never played soccer or haven’t played for years to join the team and play just for fun. C hasn’t played since fourth or fifth grade, but wanted to jump in and give it a shot. Before her first game S told her if she scored a goal this year, we would let her get her ear cartilage pierced. Some other parents heard this and had mixed reactions. A few thought this was a terrible idea because then their kids would want the same thing. A few others started telling their kids to pass to C so she could score. I think it was more to see if S would follow through than to help C get what she wants.

In her first game, a 6–0 win, she didn’t have any chances. She’s missed a couple games because of kickball, but got a chance to play last Thursday. I was with L at kickball but apparently C had a great chance to score and just swung too early, putting what should have been a sure goal over the crossbar. Her team is really good – they are 3–0 – and I have a feeling the boys that score most of the goals will start looking for her when the game in no longer in doubt.

Most importantly she’s having a really good time. She quit playing soccer because she had gotten kicked hard a few times and wasn’t enjoying it as much. She actually looks forward to the practices and games. It helps that she’s on a solid team.

Both girls are also running track. Their first meet will be this Sunday. C will run the 200, the 800 (which she’s not happy about), and one relay. L is running for the first time ever and has, apparently, dominated the sprints at practice. Each night she gets in the car and tells me how good she is. She’s going through a not-very-humble phase. There are a couple pretty quick girls in her class, and she’s always been fast on the kickball bases. But we won’t know how fast she really is until we see her in a meet. She’s running the 50, 100, and 200 this week.

We are busy! It’s kind of nice that kickball will wrap up in the middle of track so the girls will have a couple weeks to concentrate on running and get ready for City.

Those are the middle schoolers. M is playing tennis at CHS, and her first match is tomorrow. She’s been taking lessons, either privately or with a group, for seven months. I hope they pay off enough that she can at least get her serves in and win a few points. Luckily since last spring was wiped out, most schools are keeping all their sophomores and there will be a lot of chances to play other girls who have limited experience.

End of Two Seasons and A Career

September 15, 2020 / DB

The fall 2020 kickball season has come to an end for our family.

L’s team capped their season Wednesday with a run-rule win against the nearest parish. L had a grand slam, a three-run triple, and a single to close out the season.

She didn’t kick quite as well this year as in the past. I’m not sure if that’s because she hasn’t played soccer in a year, or just from her body changing – she’s stretched out more over the past few months – and her form changing along with it. She’s becoming more like C, though, and kicking line drives then racing around the bases. There are a couple girls that are probably faster than her in a straight line. But no one runs the bases like she does. Her grand slam was legit, though, a towering ball that an outfielder couldn’t contain and rolled all the way to the school building.

C’s team had their final game Thursday. It was against a school we’ve had issues with for years. We beat them like a drum back in fifth grade. But something happened between that game and sixth grade. Our girls all seemed to plateau while the St J’s girls all got bigger, recruited some friends, and figured the game out. Not only had they beaten us something like five-straight, including earlier this season, but some bad blood had developed between us and their coaches. Their coach is super competitive, as are we, but always acts like she doesn’t know the rules. She’s been coaching long enough where she damn well should know them. Our head coach is our school rules expert, and it drives her nuts when this coach pretends she doesn’t know what is going on.

And weird things tend to happen in these games. Once it started sprinkling during the game, then raining a little harder. The umpire refused to stop the game and a couple of our parents yanked their kids off the field in the middle of an inning. Another time C felt like she was going to throw up and had to exit in the middle of the game, likely costing us that game. Our head coaches also argued about when to reschedule another game that was rained out, and a third game that was halted because of darkness three innings in. And we ALWAYS seem to get some crazy umpire when we play them. In our first meeting this year we got a total dick who refused to call St. J girls out for crossing the kicking line because he said it was too hard for him to see it.[1] Then he yelled at our head coach, telling her to “Come out here and see what I can see!” when she attempted to protest.

In short, when we play St. J it always ends up being some super stressful night that isn’t fun at all. Plus we lose.

When we rolled up to the field Thursday my stomach did a flip. We had the umpire from M’s infamous “Longest Game Ever” three years ago. This was the umpire that made two absolutely horrific, and wrong according to the rules, calls that nearly cost us the game. It was the maddest I’ve ever been during a game and the only time I’ve decided to chat with an umpire following a game.

L’s team had her earlier this year and she missed a couple calls against us in a close game.

Just freaking great.

We gave up eight runs in the first inning. Not a great start. We got a few back in our half, played better D, and slowly chipped away. In the third inning the umpire made a “wrong by the rules” call. In kickball a runner at first is in play if she turns back inside fair territory to get back to first. Doesn’t matter if their intent is to go back to first. A St. J girl did that, our girl playing first tagged her out, but the umpire refused to rule her out. Our head coach went out to discuss, but the umpire would not change her call. Between innings they had a chat and the umpire admitted she was wrong. Fortunately we got that girl out at second so it didn’t alter the score.

But my blood pressure was rising.

We continued to play well on defense and took a three-run lead into the seventh.

We gave up five and St. J had the bases loaded with two outs when their kicker stepped over the kicking line when she made contact. The head coach and I started yelling, “SHE’S OUT!” The umpire gave us a look, nodded, waited until the girl passed first, then called her out. Redemption!

Now we needed two runs to tie, three to win, with the heart of our order coming up. Our best kicker was first. She’s a lefty and kicked the longest ball I’ve ever seen on our field. She easily scampered home for the first run. We got a runner on, made an out, then had another big kicker come up with a runner on second. She blasted one, bringing home the tying run and ended up on second. We had a good, if inconsistent kicker up next. She sent a low liner toward the shortstop. It skipped, got by her, and bounded into the outfield. I coach third and was screaming at our runner, “COME ON, COME ON, GO! GO! GO!” windmilling my arm and sending her home. She scored easily, our girls all lost their shit, and they ended their careers with a very sweet win.

Whew. I literally smacked our head coach in the shoulder when we got to our bench. “HOW ABOUT THAT!?!?” I yelled at her. The girls hugged, took pictures, thanked their classmates that had come to support them, and we headed to Dairy Queen for an ice cream celebration. And then the St. J’s team all showed up. That was a liiiiiiittle bit awkward. With Covid restrictions in mind, we claimed one side of the patio, they stuck to the other, and the peace was kept.

C got on three times and scored a couple runs. She had one play where she was able to open up and fly around the bases, scoring from first. One of the St. J’s players said, “Wow!” as C passed her at full speed.

That is what I’m always going to remember and miss about C. Once she figured the game out, she was the best player in her grade for about three years. In sixth grade she was one of the very best players in the entire school, both because of her kicking and speed and the way she could basically play the entire infield.

She’s lost some of that over the past year. Her kicking isn’t as consistent, but she still occasionally really got into one. Her fielding took a huge step back. I think all those blasts up front, and resulting injuries, wore her down.[2] But the girl could still fly when she got on base.

M and C had very different kickball careers. M was always on great teams, but was often the weakest player on the team. C was on a bunch of mediocre to bad teams, but usually was the most complete player on the team.

I have two favorite memories of C’s kickball years.

The first was in fifth grade. I don’t remember the details of the game. I just know she kicked a couple home runs and made a ton of plays in the field. That night a friend of ours with a daughter on the team sent me a screenshot of the text her son, who is in M’s grade, sent her after the game. He said that his sister made a couple nice plays and that C “Had the greatest kickball performance I’ve ever seen.” I show that to C every year when it pops up in my Timehop memories.

Second was a moment in sixth grade. I was keeping score and the mom/grandma keeping score for the other team kept bragging about her daughter/granddaughter and how fast she was. “Yeah, you’re not going to throw her out,” when we tried to throw her out at first. She told me how the girl was the fastest on the St. C cross country team. I nodded and smiled, not saying a word about C’s speed, and knowing C had beaten her at every XC meet that season.

Fairly early in the game this girl was on first and the ball got away from our pitcher, rolling behind home plate. The runner saw this and took off, getting to second easily and turning towards third. C had taken off after the ball immediately, picked it up a good 10 feet behind home plate as the girl was rounding second, and then roared across the field to tag the girl out a step before she got to third. Giggling the entire time.

The mom/grandma literally gasped and made some semi-snotty comment about how it was a lucky play to her kid when she checked in with us as out. It was very hard for me not to say “DON’T EVER FUCKING RUN ON CB AGAIN!” I did say it to myself. Bitches.

Those moments of speed are the biggest thing I will remember about C’s career. She could be moody, get down on herself, and mentally check out. I lost track of how many games she started crying in, whether because she was getting beaten up by the ball or was frustrated with the umpire. But when that girl got a chance to run, she was so much fun to watch.

There is a line in front of home plate that kickers are not supposed to cross when they kick. I know there is an official distance this line is supposed to be in front of home, but it differs on every diamond. If a girl steps over the line and kicks a fair ball, she is supposed to be out. ↩
She had her worst injury a couple weeks back. She was pitching and took an absolutely crushed ball right in the hand. It bent her hand completely backward and she immediately burst into tears and came out of the game. I was worried her wrist was broken. It turned out she just had a nasty hematoma that lasted about a week. S said the force of the ball likely burst a blood vessel in C’s arm. I’ve been trying to tell you all for years how rough real kickball is! ↩

Fall Kid Sports

August 26, 2019 / DB

Fall sports have begun. Right now we are actively involved in five sports, with another to begin tomorrow. Joyous times.

The fall kickball season started last Monday. We have nine teams at St. P’s this year, and got off to a great 7-2 start on opening day. The two teams to lose? My girls’ teams.

C’s team, which I’m helping to coach, gave up four runs in the 7th to lose by one. They did not play all that well and I was honestly shocked that we had the lead going into the 7th. C absolutely blasted the first pitch of the season, maybe her most powerful kick ever, but had bad luck when it went to dead center and hit a telephone pole that is an automatic ground-rule double. A foot toward left field and she has an easy home run. As tends to happen, that got in her head and she didn’t play well the rest of the game. I told her before the game I just wanted her to play and have fun this year. I wasn’t going to get on her when she made mistakes. I took that pledge back when we got in the car after the game, though, when I had to ask her why she failed to field a couple balls that are normally easy plays for her. Teenage girls are a challenge, and she’s going to be our most challenging in terms of moods and how we push her to work through them without pushing too hard and making them worse.

L’s team was playing at the same time, against the team that beat them in the City championship game last spring. This game wasn’t much better, with our girls losing by 16. I talked to her coach afterward and she insisted it was one bad inning that killed us and we were fully capable of beating them if we played them again in a division championship game.

That opportunity went out the window Thursday when L’s team lost their second game, this time by just two runs. I was at this game and I have to say, I have no idea what has happened to L’s team. Last season they had four girls who could be relied on the blast the ball every time they kicked, then 2-3 others who might give you a big kick. They all, including L, kicked like crap Thursday. Worse, they kept kicking it directly to the pitcher who made play-after-play. This girl was the best player on the basketball team that gave L’s team their only two losses last fall, which made it worse. She’s a really good kid, but come on, girls, show some pride and beat her in something! Or at least make her work for it! L made an egregious mistake on the base paths that really cost us, too. That was more frustrating to me than the loss.

Cross country began on Saturday, which was an absolutely perfect day here in Indy. Sunny, cool in the morning, only in the 70s by late morning. Just a delightful day.

I went with M to her first ever race. The varsity boys and girls ran a Hokum Karem relay to start the day, then the JV kids ran a two-mile race. My goal for M was to 1) finish and 2) not be last. Success! She finished, even kicking in fairly strong at the end to pass a few girls. She was not last! She was very close to last, though. More importantly, she cut three minutes off her time trial time, which she was very pleased with. Overall it was a good experience. Next week is tougher as she has to run a full 5K. And, if nothing else, cross country has served its purpose for her by giving her a way to meet people, which opens the door to meet other people. She’s already hung out with several girls she’s either met directly through XC, or through a teammate.

C’s race was also a relay, and she was paired with St. P’s best 8th grade runner. This is the traditional first meet of the season and C has always run the flatter, faster leg or the relay. This time they gave her the hilly half. I don’t know if it was the tougher side of the trail, or other issues, but S texted me that C really struggled. She was fighting a bit of a cold and that may have affected her a bit. Or it could have just been whatever was in her head last week. But it took her a long time after the race to recover and she was very upset by her performance.

She had already told us she wasn’t enjoying cross country as much as in the past, but hasn’t really explained why. We think some of it is how much she enjoyed track, and how she’d rather run for 20 or 30 seconds than 13 or 14 minutes. I’ve been trying to motivate her by telling her that her times from last year are better than a lot of the high school runners’ times. But I also realize that as girls bodies begin to change, often their athletic abilities change. I was in a conversation a week ago with a few parents, discussing what sports we thought our kids might stick with in high school. One mom said, “Once girls get boobs and an ass, everything changes.” C’s body hasn’t changed that much from where it was a year ago, but it is changing, and maybe this is all just part of that process. I hope she can find a way to make the rest of the season fun again regardless of her times.

As I may have mentioned, CYO girls basketball has been moved earlier in the calendar because of dumbness. Teams were announced last weekend and L made the 5th-6h grade A team. We had a long talk before tryouts about the pros and cons of A team vs B team. She was excited to have a chance to play on the A team, but understood there’s a sixth grade point guard who made the A team last year that she would back up. And there would be fewer of her friends on the A team. While on the B team she would start, likely be the best player, play a ton of minutes, and be with more friends. She told me she was good either way.

And then she went out and rocked her tryout. I heard from the mom of a sixth grader that her daughter told her after, “L was the best player there today.” I don’t know if that’s true, but apparently she played really well and earned her spot. Two of her classmates also made the A team. I was a little surprised because one of those is also a point guard and I thought they might pick either L or her to keep on a B team. But that girl can also be turned into more of a wing so it may not be an issue.

They’ve had two practices so far and L is enjoying it. I think the coach, a mom I’ve coached with before, is really enjoying having to plan around two kickball schedules, a swimmer, several cross country runners, and a couple soccer players when she tries to get practices on the calendar. Glad it’s not me!

Oh, and L starts soccer practice tomorrow. This will be her final year in a rec league. We’ve heard that registrations were way down this year, so we don’t know if she’s going to play the same two teams over-and-over, or if her league will partner with another to find games. Once again she’s on a team that is a random mix of girls, which can be trouble at this age because they end up playing teams that stick together from season-to-season.

Curses

May 14, 2019 / DB

Yesterday was the fourth time one of our girls played in a kickball City Championship game.

For the fourth time, we played our worst game of the year and walked away losers.

L’s team got waxed pretty good, 20–4, and it really wasn’t that close.

The team they played was solid at the plate and really good in the field. They only had a couple girls who could really blast the ball, but every other girl knew how to either kick away from the defense or to the spot that forced the defense to make a tough play. Our girls have been fantastic on defense this year but they made just enough mistakes to put us in a hole early. Then they could never get anything going on offense and the result was not in question after about the third inning.

So much of this game reminded me of some of M’s City title games. We got down early, and you could see our girls tightening up. There were those bobbles in the field, something M’s team always and only did in championship games. And we were cursed by the big roster. You play ten in the field in kickball, but everyone kicks. Because we weren’t putting long innings together and have a roster of 16, we didn’t make it through our entire lineup two full times. Our last kicker was on deck for her second attempt when the final out was made. Which meant L and our other big kickers only kicked twice. Unless you’re perfect in the field, you can’t win that way. Same blueprint as two of M’s City losses.

L did ok. She had two singles. Her first kick was solid. It could have been caught but they only knocked it down and were able to keep the runner in front of L from advancing, which kept L at first. Her second kick was down the third base line and kept in the infield. She told me before the game she was nervous and it showed in her kicking.

The team we played had a couple girls that looked more like sixth graders. Seriously, one of them was almost as tall as their coach. One of L’s teammates has cousins at that school and she said she was going to check their yearbooks to make sure those girls really were fourth graders. A little late if they’re not!

The other bonus was this team was coached by the crazy coach C’s team played against earlier this year. We were walking in at the same time and she did a double-take, “Where do I know you from?” she asked. “I coach our sixth grade team. You beat the crap out of us last month.” As she was after C’s game, she was super nice in the few moments we chatted. But, man, during the game she is turnt up, as the kids once said. I was glad I was on the opposite side of the diamond from her this time.

So we are now 0–5 in City playoff games as a family, all the losses coming to teams from the south side of Indy. Seriously, there’s something in the water down there because they just eat up good teams from the north side. Looks like we’ll need another combination of craziness like M’s team had last year to ever win another City title.

There was some pressure on this group because we’re pretty sure it’s the last time all of the best girls will play kickball. We’re still debating whether to move L into a more competitive soccer league next fall. Another good player runs cross country and plays competitive lacrosse and we’re not sure if she’ll come back. Two other players are at the point with softball where they will start playing year-round travel ball.

If this was it for them as a whole class, it was a great season with a disappointing finish.

Oh, one thing I forgot to add to my weekend wrap: C’s kickball team won their last game of the season last week! After two close calls – games we really should have won – we avoided going 0-fer with a five-run win. The girls were all super excited. And I think they were done with the head coach and I. We were a little intense in the last couple innings as we tried to will them to the win. Two girls in the field who kept getting in each other’s way were especially done with us. But, hey, we got the Dub!

C finished a fantastic individual year with another home run, a couple more runs, and some more great plays in the field. Her dad coaching third did run her into an out, though, when he fell asleep. She was flying around second and my focus was on the runner in front of her, who was dragging ass. I was yelling at her to move it as C approached third. A defender was chasing but I assumed she would dump the ball off to the pitcher to end the play. Instead she cut toward C and had a great angle. I yelled at C to stop, she skidded, ended up on her ass, and was then tagged out. I quickly told her it was my fault as she wiped away tears of pain because of her skinned palms. She nodded and walked away wordlessly. I seriously don’t think anyone has ever run her down on the bases so I think she was pissed about that more than the pain in her hands. But it was totally on dad, which she forgave me for later. Thank goodness we didn’t lose by one!

Kid Sports

April 29, 2019 / DB

We put M on a bus to Washington, DC at 6:15 this morning. So seems like the perfect moment for a kid sports update time!

Kickball

C’s team, which I am helping to coach, is 0–2 with one game rained out so far, another removed from the schedule because the team we were supposed to play could not play on the date originally planned and were jerks about finding a makeup date, and tonight we play a team that is just crushing everybody, including one of the teams we lost to. Sooooo not a great start.

Worse, both losses have come by the run rule. There’s really not much to get into about either game. We played poorly, the other teams played well. The first game the opposing head coach was a loud woman who literally drowned out both myself and our head coach with her yelling. She would scream at her kickers from the first base coaching box, “I NEED YOU RIGHT HERE! PUT IT DOWN THE LINE AND GET HERE!” non-stop for the 45 or so minutes it took them to kick our asses. More fun was when she yelled “SAFE!” on every close play at first when her team was kicking. I think that’s kind of bullshit but she out-weighed me and would have likely kicked my ass had I said anything. She was very nice after the game. C and I were parked near her and she came over to compliment C on her play. But, man, during the game she wore us out more than her team did.

The second game just got away from us slowly as our girls struggled in the field. Which is a recurring theme this year. I know how this is going to sound, but trust me when I say I’m being honest: if C doesn’t make the play on defense we have about a 5% chance of getting an out. Our other players jump out of the way when the ball is kicked to them, bobble it, throw to the wrong base, chase the wrong runner, or just forget what to do and freeze. Meanwhile C is running all over the place getting outs by chasing people down. We’ve had her pitch more this year, which is problematic because each play doesn’t end until the pitcher controls the ball in the pitching circle. She’s used to running around and chasing people, making sure they’re on a base, and then throwing to the pitcher. This year she chases them, get everyone to freeze, then calls a teammate over, hands them the ball to so they can hold the runner, and scampers back to the circle. It’s exhausting to watch. I’ll straight up say this: there’s only one other girl at St. P’s who plays defense as well as C, and that girl is a classmate of M’s who is likely the best overall athlete in the school. I’m proud of C but, damn, I wish some of her prowess rubbed off on her teammates.

L’s team is 3–1. The only loss came last Tuesday, 20–17 after they started the game down 12–0. I was at C’s game that night so missed it but all the coaches were angry after because they knew the one inning killed them. Luckily we play that team again this Friday so can hopefully get a W to force a playoff. Unluckily L hurt her leg in that game. She came home in pain and could hardly walk the next three days. A coach told me that a ball got through the infield and L tried to run it down and she looked like she was “running angry.” Maybe in that running angry she pulled something. It also could have been because she overused it last Monday when we went on a bike ride, played baseball, practiced soccer, and threw the football for a few hours in total. Regardless she missed Friday’s game and would have missed her soccer game Thursday had it not been rained out.

Her team is really good and we all hope they can get a win Friday because we know this is the last time we might have all the best players in this class together. L will likely go to soccer, another player will go to softball, and another player will go to lacrosse and cross country. Maybe not all next fall but soon those three will all be playing sports that don’t allow time for kickball.

Soccer

L is also playing CYO soccer, on a team with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Which is funny to watch. There are some rather big boys on her team and she plays up front with a couple of them. The contrast in size is amusing. The season started off well. They won their first game and tied their second, and L scored a goal in each, tying her for the team lead. In the third game, which they won 2–1, she scored again. Unfortunately it was an own goal when a ball deflected off of her and into the St. P’s goal. I immediately joked that “That’s what they get for trying to play her on defense.” She just does not like defense and isn’t the same player when she’s forced to play there. I keep telling her she needs to get over that and play with the same kind of aggressiveness but she remains passive. This, though, was a total accident, a bad ball that she couldn’t do much about.

She seemed fine after the play. However, when she subbed out a few minutes later she came running over to me. She had a big smile on her face but when she got to me she burst into tears. At first I thought she was hurt, “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I messed up!” she said as she buried her face in my shirt. I tried to calm her down and told her it wasn’t her fault, it’s happened to other players, and it was wasn’t that big of a deal, but it took her several minutes to get control. Once she did she subbed back in and played fine. After the game she said she was the MVP for the other team since she had scored their only goal. I guess she came to grips with it.

Sunday she was back on the pitch for the first time after her injury and seemed to be moving ok. However, her team was missing a couple of their best players and they were playing an awesome team. We were down 4–0 at halftime and lost 10–0. You read that right, ten-zip. We hit the post once, had maybe two other scoring chances the whole game, and then got blitzed on the other end. Bummer.

I’m hopeful this year is helping her to get better by playing against older boys. I guess we’ll see in the fall when she goes back to playing against age-group girls. This season has highlighted some areas she needs to get stronger in, most notably her dribbling and possession skills. And not scoring for the other team!

Track

C’s first track meet on Masters Sunday was cancelled because of rain. So four schools got together last Wednesday and had a mock meet to get the kids some experience. C was scheduled to run the 400, 800, and the medley relay. She finished third in her 400 heat, but in a time that would have won the boys race. However after she crossed the finished she caught a spike and turned her ankle. She was in some pain and decided to sit out the 800 so she’d be ready for the relay. She ran the 200 leg of the relay and did great, afterward saying she wished she had run her 800. Oh well…

Sunday was her first real meet. She was placed in the easier of the two 400 heats and won it in 1:14. That time was good for third overall. They put the girls from all age groups into one 800 race and she finished 10th, good for third in her age group again.

I had to take L to soccer so missed C’s relay. She ran the anchor leg this time, which is a full 400 meters. As the story was told to me, St. P’s was in fourth – last – place going into the her leg. C chased everyone down, including the leader in the last 20 meters to pull out the win. I was bummed I missed it because that’s like the coolest thing in track: coming from behind to win a relay race.

Anyway, she’s really enjoying it. She has some Michael Johnson in her running style, very upright with kind of short, choppy, powerful steps. But she moves.

As a parent standing outside for four-plus hours when the windchill is in the 30s and 40s the day wasn’t great. We’re totally expecting it to be brutally hot next weekend when she runs again.

Weekend Notes

October 29, 2018 / DB

A strangely busy yet boring fall break weekend.

L had a soccer tournament to wrap up her season. This came after not playing for two weeks and, unfortunately, it really showed. The girls, and L especially, were just not on their game.

Friday we played our opening game at 7:45 under the lights. The windchill was in the upper 30s, there was a stiff northerly breeze, and it was raining steadily. All-in-all a miserable night to do anything outside. We were playing a team we beat 2–1 in the regular season. Surprise, surprise, we got another, nervy, 2–1 win. We played our second round robin game Saturday against a team that beat us 8–1 to begin the season. We hung in for the first half and went into the break down just 1–0 on a freaky goal that went off our defender, off our goalie’s hands, and then off her foot into the goal. We melted down in the second half and lost 5–0.

Still, we made it through to the semis and took on a team we tied 3–3 during the regular season. We played really well for the first 25 minutes, mostly controlling the game. L had our only decent scoring chance and put it off the post. But right before half time we fell apart again, the last five minutes being played deep in our defensive end. The second half was the same: we could not get possession and were constantly scrambling in the back to clean things up. Our defense finally paid for being out of position and we let one through midway through the half. We never got a decent scoring chance after that and our season ended with a 1–0 loss.

L just had nothing all weekend. I don’t know if it was the weather – Saturday was cool and the field was still sloppy; Sunday it was warmer but very windy – if she wasn’t feeling well, if the two weeks off ruined her soccer stamina, or if she had just checked out mentally. Whatever it was, these were probably the three worst games she’s ever played. She just showed no energy, shied away from going after the ball, wouldn’t make runs when we had the ball, and basically played extremely out of character for her.

As a coaching parent, it was very frustrating. I let her have it a few times Sunday when she would just stand and watch where she used to get in the middle of the action and make things happen. Afterward I had to remind myself that we played three good defensive teams this weekend – she had scored just one goal against them in three regular season games – and all three were older teams. For playing most of the season against girls two years older than her, she still had a really good season. I think it was her lowest goal-scoring season ever, but she still had 9 or 10 in 10 games. Most importantly, I think she understands the areas she needs to get better in if she wants to keep playing. She needs to learn how control the ball better. How to do more than just do a series of fakes and step-backs when a defender cuts her off. How to pass the ball to others when the defense keys on her. Rather than play a winter sport, she’s most likely going to do some individual training with a local high school coach. I expect between that, and maybe a growth spurt that helps her compete against bigger girls, she’ll be just fine the next time she plays in a league.[1]

I was secretly relieved we lost in the semis. If we had advanced we would have played the team that smoked us Saturday again, and their coach is an annoying tool. Plus right around the time of the championship game we had wind gusts over 50 MPH, so that would not have been fun.

Oh, and we had a basketball game yesterday, too, which would have made playing soccer again rough.

L looked just fine at basketball, at least in the first half. She scored four, ran the floor well, played decent D. In the second half she looked pretty gassed, though, and kept losing the ball when she brought it up against pressure. They won – almost blowing a big lead but hanging on late – and are now 5–1 with one game to play before the tournament begins.

Whew. No surprise that she was pretty tired and sore last night.

M cheered for the final time yesterday. Our 7th/8th grade football team lost 7–6 in the City semis. She was bummed she’s done with cheer. She really enjoyed it, although I think it was mostly the hanging out with her friends that she liked more than the cheering part. She’s made some comments about wanting to cheer in high school. We’ve pointed out that in HS you need to have tumbling/gymnastics experience, which she has zero of. So we’ll see where that goes. I think the majority of her St. P’s friends that go to high school with her will likely not cheer either.

Speaking of high school, we got the final pieces of paperwork in for her application last week. Now we wait about three weeks before we hear. Her shadow day is tomorrow.

OK, onto other stuff from the weekend.

Hey, KU won a Big 12 football game! We’re tied for last place with the tie breaker over TCU! If the season ended today, we would be 9th! I was not able to watch the game between soccer, a visitor stopping by, and then a family party that took us away from home. I was following along online and via text updates from friends.[2] I think I’m glad I wasn’t able to see the final moments of the game. It would have been sooooooo KU football to leave a second on the clock then mess up the squib kick and give TCU a chance to kick a winning field goal. In fact, I’m shocked that didn’t actually happen. But, hey, KU has three wins this year. They really should have four if not for the mysterious absence of Pooka Williams week one. That won’t be enough to save David Beaty’s job, but at least you can argue there’s been progress. The big question is what is he leaving behind. If he is fired, how many non-seniors will decide to leave? He kind of messed up recruiting so he/the next coach will have very few scholarships to give out for next year, so it’s imperative that the program hang onto as many of the young guys as possible. Do that and you can start to squint hard enough to believe a good coaching hire this winter and a good recruiting class next year means mediocrity isn’t too far in the future. Ah, mediocrity! How I’ve missed you!

Five game World Series are strange beasts. A team winning 4–1 makes it seems like it was a boring series. The Royals-Mets series in 2015 proved that wrong, with two extra-inning games and a third that had a lead change in the 8th inning. I think this year’s will go down as fairly boring, although games three and four were the exceptions to that.

No, I did not stay up for all 18 innings of game three. Hell, I went to bed at the end of the 9th. Although, strangely, I could not sleep and kept waking up. After I saw the score Saturday morning, I was convinced my body knew there was an epic game going on in LA and wanted me to go downstairs and turn the TV back on. Game four was thoroughly enjoyable to a non-partisan fan. Dodger Stadium was coming unglued after Yasiel Puig’s home run in the 6th that put LA up by four. But, man, these Red Sox are relentless, and once they got that first run back, you knew the game, and the series, was over. The 9–5 final made it look like another blow out. But those last four innings were fun to watch.

I was really hoping for a seven game series, and not just to stretch the end of the season. I wanted to see how Alex Cora managed his pitching staff over seven games. I loved the way he mixed and matched all series to get his best arms on the mound in any situation. But I wondered if they could keep that up if the series had returned to Boston. David Price was simply amazing last night, and all series for that matter. I’m not a huge fan of his; he often seems like a joyless, bitter human being. But that performance last night was fantastic.

She’s making noises about taking the spring season off from competitive soccer and playing CYO soccer. I’ve tried to tell her CYO soccer is kind of a disaster, but she really wants to play with a couple friends who aren’t skilled enough to play in her league anymore. We’ll see… ↩
The ESPN app feed glitched in the fourth quarter for about five minutes. It would update down and distance but not the clock. People were texting me that there were 30 seconds left but the app still said 6:00+. I have a friend who was following the game from Spain and she said it did the same thing to her. I think the app couldn’t believe KU was about to pull off the W. ↩

Mo’ Kid Sports

September 18, 2018 / DB

Our kickball seasons came to an official end last night. A season that began with back-to-back rainouts at the same school ended with back-to-back make-up games at that school in 90-degree heat. Not the best bookends.

C’s season wrapped up Friday in pretty glorious fashion. Every girl was locked in and they cruised to a 44–5, run-ruled win. If we had played like that the previous Monday, we just might have had a chance against the team that won our division. C closed the year with a big home run. The head coach’s husband was taking pictures and got a great one of C just after contact, her right foot up in the air, her left several inches off the ground, the ball just about out of the frame as it rocketed to the outfield.

M’s season ended on the same field last night with a doubleheader make up of two rained out games. We began the first game up 9–1, as the season-opener was stopped just as we were ending the first inning. For three weeks our girls had that inning to think about. I’m pretty sure they all expected the day to be two easy wins. And, unfortunately, they played two rather disinterested games. Oh, and it turned out their opponents were pretty good. Despite that 9–1 lead, we dropped the first game 27–20. In the second game, we trailed by three in the last inning but scraped across four runs with two outs to take a lead. Our defense, normally the bright spot on this team, had been suspect all day. And we kicked the ball around the infield long enough to let the tying and winning runs in.

Yep, a team that had lost six regular season games in nine seasons coming in got swept in a doubleheader and finished the year with three losses. Not exactly the way we wanted these girls to end their kickball careers.

After the game M was a little teary. Likely more because she jammed a finger in the last inning than because she was emotional about her kickball days being done. I reminded her how when she was in third grade, she said she absolutely did not want to play in the spring.[1] We told her that she had to at least give it a try. She not only played that spring, but was super excited to play in the fall of her fourth grade year. And never stopped after. I also reminded her that in ten seasons, she had a ton of great memories she would hang on to for years. I don’t know if that helped her, but it made me feel better.

Our weekend was full of sports, too.

L finally got on the soccer field, errrr, pitch with games both Saturday and Sunday. They were two very different experiences.

The league L is in partners with a couple neighboring leagues to make sure we have enough teams at the U12-U16 levels. And our first opponent was a true club team. These girls had been playing together for several years and were, the head coach and I were guessing, the product of a tryout process rather than a blind, random generation of kids like our roster was. We hung in for the first 10 minutes or so, but it got real ugly after that. We lost something like 10–1. We gave up two penalty kicks because of handballs in the box. We probably should have given up two more but our ref didn’t seem super interested in calling anything that wasn’t blatantly obvious.

It didn’t help that our opponents were huge compared to ours. They all had to be early 2007 birthdays, and were tall and thick, where our team was full of late 2008 girls who are either short or have cross country bodies. It really looked like we were in the wrong league, both in terms of talent and size. Oh, and we were missing four girls, so we had zero subs. And one of our players took a shot in the nose and had to sit out for several minutes until it stopped bleeding.

For the first time since she started playing, L looked totally outclassed. It took her a long time to figure out how to get and keep possession. And then she would dribble into the teeth of the defense and get surrounded by three girls who were all 5’4” and thick. She did set up our only goal by taking a ball deep down the side and crossing it. But for the most part she was humbled.

Sunday we played a team that looked only slightly smaller than Saturday’s opponents. Again it was a very even first 10–15 minutes until they broke through with a couple goals. We pulled one back when L made a good run, got completely wiped out inside the box, everyone stopped waiting for a whistle that never came, and one of our other girls pounced on the loose ball and put it in.

The second half was another story. I don’t know what happened, because we mostly let the girls sit and hydrate to recover from the heat at halftime, but we absolutely dominated the first 15 minutes of the second half. The head coach and I got all over L for giving up on a ball right in front of us because a bigger defender was chasing it down, too. She got pissed, charged down the field and stole the ball back. Moments later, she pulled a Roberto Baggio, collecting a ball deep in the defensive end and dribbling straight up the field before ripping one by the goalie. Really, these goals should not happen at this level. I think the defense was just tired. Their goalie then scored on herself and we were tied.[2]

L got another goal to put us ahead, and missed two dead easy chances that literally made me fall over in disbelief. She looked like she belonged Sunday. We got a fifth goal late when their goalie gifted us another and we got out with a 5–3 win. The mood of the girls was like 1000% better than Saturday, shockingly. One girl, Saturday, kept saying, “What’s the point? Why are we even trying?” I was going to start calling her Lucy from the Peanuts because of her attitude. After Sunday’s game she had a big grin on her face and I asked her, “Isn’t it better when you don’t give up hope and keep playing?”

Because of other sports, I hadn’t been able to be around the entire team until this weekend. I’m not sure how good we’ll be, since we’re so young and small, but I really like a bunch of the girls. We have a few who are super athletic and a little stubborn, and refuse to give up if a bigger girl takes the ball away. We have three girls who work really well with L, and they could become difficult to stop once they learn how to play together. One of those girls can slide all over the field and cover any position while making fantastic passes to her teammates. And a bunch of them have fun personalities. We have one girl who complains a lot. At halftime she was complaining about how hot it was and how she hated running. Our smallest girl, who is this tiny thing with glasses and braces but is also really good, said in her little voice, “Don’t you run track, though?” Not everyone heard it but I busted out laughing, “Dang, O! You just roasted her!” and the whole team lost it. O sat there with a proud, sheepish grin on her face.

C also ran Saturday afternoon. We kind of hate this race because A) it’s huge; I think every school in the area is invited and B) it is always in the afternoon so the runners at the high school that hosts can run in their meet in the morning. So we’re always out in the open and it is usually hot. Saturday was just nasty hot and humid.

Except for the elite runners, who cruised to wins, everyone was having a really hard time. In C’s race, all St. P’s runners were on the verge of tears and barely able to stand at the end. She finished 18th with about the same time she ran last year. S and I had to walk with her, helping her along, until we could get her to shade after she finished. She was the fourth St. P’s runner and the third in her grade. Now that kickball is done I’m hoping a little extra training will push her up a few spots in the next few meets.

Back then third graders could not play until the spring season, and then only on mixed teams with fourth graders. ↩
Speaking of things that shouldn’t happen at this level, goalies should not kick the ball backwards over their heads into their own goals. ↩

Camps and Sports

July 24, 2018 / DB

It is another camp week for us, which means the house is a little quieter. M is spending her week at CYO camp an hour south. We dropped her off Sunday. Although we drove through rain on the way there, we did not have to walk through a deluge to get to her cabin as we did with C in June. M is very excited to be back for her third year there. Five classmates are in her cabin with her. Looks like it will actually be reasonably warm rather than scorching hot while she’s down there, which is a bonus.

Last week L went to soccer camp at Cathedral, her future high school. She was a little nervous about going as no friends were signed up. The camp is for grades 4–9, too, which meant she would be in the youngest group there. When we walked up on Monday morning all we saw were girls that were much bigger than her. I noticed a worried look on her face. I found a coach, introduced myself, and checked to make sure we were in the right spot. “Yeah, you are. Those girls over there are the high school team. They’re here to help.” Thank goodness, because while I have great confidence in L’s game, I had a hard time seeing her playing against 16 year olds.

Still, when I left, I had a strange feeling. She usually jumps right into things but she had a sense of reserve about her. She’s become a bit of a worrier over the past year or so, and something about her demeanor made me start considering her having a bad experience.

The camp was only 2 ½ hours each morning. When I rolled in to pick her up, there was a part of me that wondered if she would be upset about how the morning went, maybe even ask not to go back the next day. But, as I drove up to the fields, I saw her shooting and scoring in drills and figured everything was fine.

She ended up having a great week. The only bummer was her age group only had three other girls in it. The good side of that was she got a lot of reps and attention. One day I saw the head coach’s wife hanging out with her for a few minutes after practice. They were making short kicks to each other, back-and-forth. When she got in the car I asked L what that was about. She said, “She’s trying to get me not to cross my right leg over my left when I kick.” Private instructions from the coach’s wife, nice!

She did say that the other girls in her group were not very good. She had a great time playing with the high school girls, though. We have a couple daughters of friends on the team. One day one of them came over to say hello after practice. I know she was being nice, but she said, “Man, L is a soccer rock star! My head coach even came over and asked who she was and if she was going to play at Cathedral one day!” That made L smile.

They passed out their camp t-shirts on Friday. She did not take it off until we made her on Sunday night.

This is also my busy kickball week. Sign ups ended Sunday so I have to put teams together, get coaches in the system, make sure we have enough uniforms, etc. I’m also toying with the idea of changing how we divide up one group of girls. I’m sure that’s going to piss some folks off, which is always fun.

Our family controversy is that L decided not to play this season. She claims it is because she’s moving up to U12 soccer, that’s going to be harder, blah blah blah. Yeah, U12 is going to be a little tougher. But she’s always done just fine when she’s been a young kid on a team. And the time investment isn’t any different; she’ll still have one practice and game each week. I know that something else is bugging her about kickball, but I can’t figure out what it is. She seemed to enjoy it last year, although she did tell me then she wasn’t going to play this year. I asked her at least 50 times over the past week if she was sure. When we dropped off M at camp, two of the moms who coach L’s grade started chanting at her from the next cabin, “PLAY KICKBALL! PLAY KICKBALL!” Sucks for her teammates because she’s the best player on the team. But I will not force her to play. I’m hoping she does what C did with volleyball when she skipped last year and then, after watching some classmates play, immediately said she’s playing this year. Sunday night L backed off a little and said she’ll play in the spring. My response wasn’t, “That’s great,” or “Awesome!” or “Thanks.” No, I said, “YOU PLAY SOCCER IN THE SPRING, TOO! HOW IS THAT ANY DIFFERENT?!?!?”

Oh well.

M and C are both playing. M’s team will try to defend their (co) City championship in their last season together. C will be on the 6th grade A team and we hope finally putting the best players in that class on one team will get them a division championship.

Kid Hoops

December 5, 2017 / DB

One more piece of the weekend that requires its own entry.

L began her basketball season on Sunday with two games. We missed the first game, but we we landed I had a couple texts from the head coach and another parent letting me know that we lost by six and did not play well. We rolled into the gym a few minutes after the tip of their second game. Maybe we should have skipped it. It was pretty brutal.

We were playing a team that had no one as tall as our four biggest players. Yet those little girls knew how to set screens, go to the basket, and convert layups. They kept killing us at the top of the key because we never taught our girls how to switch on defense. There’d be a big pileup at the free throw line with like four of our girls crashed into each other while a girl from the other team went to the hoop unguarded.

Our girls – and us coaches too, to be honest – struggled with the move to “real” basketball. In the league we played in the past two years, we always had a chance to matchup after every substitute. In this league, you’re expected to check in, go to your spot, and be ready to play. For roughly two-thirds of the game our girls had no idea who they were supposed to be guarding. That’s mostly on us coaches, and I’ve been tasked with coming up with a better way to make sure everyone knows what position they’re playing and who they’re guarding.

The worst part of the game was our girls could not rebound. We didn’t track numbers but I would imagine the other team out-rebounded us at least 2–1. Not only were we taller than them, but our girls all kill each other in practice going for the ball. Not sure if they were timid because they were playing against strangers, just out of sorts because they never knew where they were supposed to be, shutting down because most of the game us coaches were yelling “WHO ARE YOU GUARDING?!?!?” or what. One possession we finally got three offensive boards in a row, but couldn’t convert any of the follows.

We have exactly two inbound plays, one from the sideline, one from the baseline. We’ve practiced these for at least two weeks. In the game, no one did either one right. Players that were supposed to cut left cut right, running into the girl behind them that was cutting forward. Girls who were supposed to set screens moved, and those who were supposed to move set screens. Worse, several times the inbounding player smacked the ball and called “BREAK!” and our girls just stood there and stared at her.

I think playing two games hurt the girls, too. L was freaking wiped out after the second game. One of our girls, who is normally crazy high-energy, was walking around like a zombie during the game. Might need to get better nutrition in them all on game days.

Another thing that killed us is we have 11 players. We knew that was going to be a problem coming in, but it was even worse than we thought in a game situation. We were never sure whether to sub five-for-five or a few at a time, and kept losing track of who needed to get into the game. That was all compounded by the girls bugging us at every dead ball, “Can I go back in?” The team we were playing only had seven players, which, what a shock, seemed to make it pretty easy for their coaches to figure out subs. Our plan had been to just run teams to death with our depth. That works better when the players have an idea of how to play, I guess. Again, some of this will hopefully be fixed before the next games in two weeks. Pretty sure I’m going to be holding a clipboard to make sure we sub correctly.

Anyway, we lost 26–4. And it really wasn’t that close. L hit one shot[1] and nearly had the play of the game. We were inbounding under the opposite basket with three seconds left before halftime. You can’t press until the final three minutes of the game, so we had her stand right on the half-court line and wait for the pass. I told her take two dribbles and shoot. That’s exactly what she did, and her heave from 30 feet hit the front of the rim and bounced away. Sad that our best play was a miss.

But other than that we sucked.

Which I pretty much expected. We’ve focused on fundamentals and haven’t put in any offense, other than going to a certain spot on the court depending on your position. Us coaches are all a little flummoxed at how to teach the girls what to do, mostly because every time we explain something, we get 3–4 girls who have half a clue and the rest of the team just stares at us. The league we played in the past two years was very low key. Dribbling was optional, there weren’t many fouls called, you couldn’t steal on the dribble, etc. In our new league you can’t double players outside the lane or play zones, but everything else is like real ball. We all knew our girls would struggle early on. But getting smoked by a team of shorties was a little hard to take.

The league plays every other weekend, so we have four practices before our next set of games. Hopefully us coaches can get our acts together and, in turn, help the girls be better prepared.

She claims she scored 8 of their 19 in the first game. ↩

Winding Down the Seasons

October 9, 2017 / DB

The last big, kid sports weekend of the fall is in our rearview mirror.

C ran at the City championships on Saturday. That’s where she ran the best race of her life a year ago to finish 6th in the 3rd/4th grade race. This year it was much warmer and very windy, so not ideal running conditions. But coming off the 5th/6th grade girls winning the biggest meet of the regular season three weeks ago, we were hoping they could add a City title.

The course is great for runners in that it’s very flat. It’s great for spectators because you can see the runners several times as they wind back-and-forth if you’re willing to move around. We caught them near the 1K mark and our girls were doing great. The sixth grader who has won every race this year was well out in front. Our two other fast sixth graders were together in the low teens. And C and her fifth grade buddy were in the high teens. We yelled at C that she was doing great then cut back across the field to catch her again.

When they came through this time, our leader was still way out in front, but one of her classmates had fallen back. And C and moved up. She was 11th with just under half the race to go. More yelling of encouragement then over to the finishing stretch.

Our sixth grader cruised to another win, finishing her perfect season. A reminder that she never ran competitively before this year. She’s incredible. Our next sixth grader came over the rise at #9. Then the waiting and counting. C appeared in the 14th spot, but she looked like she was struggling. We yelled and then I ran with her, yelling from the side, for the last 200 yards. “COME ON, C! KEEP GOING, C! YOU’VE GOT IT, C! STRIDE OUT, BABE!” A girl passed her with about 100 yards left and another was closing. I ran faster and yelled louder, but she was clearly on fumes. That girl caught her right at the line, putting her in 16th place.

She didn’t set a PR – she was 11 seconds slower than her City time from a year ago – but it was still her fastest race of the year by nearly 30 seconds.

She was the third St. P’s finisher.

She was the fifth fifth grader to finish.

She beat 112 other girls.

A pretty good day for her!

We had three more races to wait through before we got official results. During that 90-minute stretch all the St. P’s parents were walking around asking where everyone finished, and seeing if anyone was counting for other schools. Our top four, who score for the team competition, were all in the top 19. We just weren’t sure if anyone else squeezed in four runners in front of them.

Turns out a school we hadn’t run against all year had four in the top 15, which was good enough to edge our girls by five points for the team title. That girl that nosed out C? Yep, she was on the winning team. Fortunately those points were not the difference, as that would have only cut it to a three point difference.

Still a great day for our girls. They got another trophy and got recognized at school this morning. Football has another month left, but so far that group of girls are the only St. P’s athletes to add any trophies to the school lobby. And each time C has been one of the girls earning points for her team.

For the year C placed in every race she ran, had one top–10 finish, and twice was the #3 finisher from St. P’s. Not bad for being in the younger half of the age group.

L had two soccer games this weekend. We missed Saturday’s game while we were at the XC meet. She scored three goals in a 12–0 win. Sunday she scored three more in a 13–1 win. She’s so humble. When she scored her third goal yesterday, she turned and looked at me and said, “That’s a hat trick!” She has 13 goals on the year with one game to play. As good of a weekend as that was for L, our best player scored nine on Saturday and six on Sunday.

Since I was at Sunday’s game I can claim a very proud coaching moment. We have a kid that is huge; he looks more like a sixth or seventh grader. He’s both tall and wide, so he’s not the most mobile or graceful kid in the world. He really struggles to control the ball. We’ve been working with him all year to not worry about taking the perfect shot. If the ball’s on your foot, hit it. What we don’t tell him is that everyone is afraid of him and they’re going to get out of the way when he winds up. He scored a goal a couple weeks back, but remained reluctant to shoot. Partially because he hits the ball so hard that it often sails well over the crossbar.

This week we put him up front and told him to stay there. Don’t chase on defense and waste your energy. Sit up front and when the ball goes forward, get into the box. He scored our first goal on an absolutely beautiful kick. He took his time, got the ball lined up, and ripped it past the goalie from outside the box. It was 1–0 for a long time before L put us up 2–0. Then the big kid scored two quick goals to break the game open. When we subbed him out we were high fiving him and telling him how awesome he was playing. I high fived our head coach and jokingly told him he had tapped into the potential coaches had been trying to get out that kid for the past two years.

On the other hand, we have a couple kids who have no idea what’s going on. Worse, one of them whines all the time, tries to score on our goalie, or gets stuck way out of position. Yesterday we had him playing defense. At first he was drifting forward and we told him to get back in his position. He gave us his usual response, a whiny “WHY?” She he shuffles his feet back to position, head down, pouting. We yell at him to watch the game and he finally picks his head up to see the ball slowly rolling toward him.

Does he run up and kick it forward, like he’s supposed to? No.

Does he trip and fall and let the other team get a clean shot on goal? No.

Does he settle the ball then turn and shoot it on his own goal, as he’s done multiple times this year? No.

Nope, instead he kneels down, puts his hands out, and waits to pick the ball up as if he’s the goalie.

The best thing about this play was the the ball was rolling very slowly, no one from the other team was chasing it, and he was on the opposite end of the field of us. It was like it was all happening in slow motion. The head coach and I were screaming at him not to touch the ball. But, sure enough, he picks the ball up and hugs it close. Free kick for the other team.

The referee told him what he did wrong and he put his head down, stood in the middle of the penalty box, and pouted while the game continued. He’s lucky his head and assistant coaches are pretty laid back dudes. We just looked at each other and muttered, “What the hell is he doing?”[1]

Later in the game this kid asked to play goalie. When we said no his response was, “But I’m one of the best defenders on the team!” Before you say, “Well he did make a good goalie play there,” I’ll let you know the two times we’ve put him in goal this season he’s literally run away from the ball when he had a chance to pick it up. One time he made an amazing save as he fled. He had his back to the ball, was running away, and the ball pinned between his legs. He tripped and fell, but he saved the shot!

We have a group of about four knucklehead boys on the team, that kid included. They never pay attention, at practice they’re always pushing each other, kicking each other’s balls across the field when we’re trying to do drills, etc. I spend about 35% of practice yelling at them to shut up and listen to what the head coach is trying to teach them. Last week I got sick of telling them the same thing over-and-over and told them the next time someone kicked a ball when they weren’t supposed to, they were going to have to run laps.

Mr. Best Defender on the Team raised his hand and said, “What’s a lap? I want to run one! Coach, what’s a lap?”

I just walked away. Later I told the head coach and he muttered, “Make him fucking run it if he wants to run one.”

Youth sports!

Also fun is apparently S yelled the same thing from where she was sitting, not knowing the kid’s mom was right in front of her. I think the mom is kind of used to it, though, and may have said the same thing. ↩