soccer dad

September 12, 2009

Today was the first soccer game for CJ that I have been able to attend this season. It was only his second, but my work schedule is not cooperating very well with his game schedule this season. Since God works in mysterious ways, I have learned to accept that it was His doing that led me to not signing up to be the coach of CJ's team this year. Not only would I have had trouble making it to games, but the frustration that goes with my desire to win versus the desires of the boys to just play, don't always coincide. Now, I don't want you to think that I become an in your face coach or that I yell at the boys when things don't go well, I just happen to feel the losses or ties more deeply than they do. I get upset and mull over ties as if I had to actually kiss my sister. Ugh! I take the losses even worse (what is worse than kissing your sister...kissing your brother I guess). Excuse me for a second, I just ate.

The thing that would have put me over the edge today, as it did last season, was that his team only had 11 players. There are 15 on the team, but 4 did not show up. As 40 somethings, we look at 12 and 13 year olds as if they have all the energy in the world. However, you put them in the heat on a Saturday morning, and they start to run out of gas somewhere in the second half. They had a 2-1 lead in the 4th quarter, but could not hold it. The final was 2-2. CJ played well, but was one of the boys dragging a bit near the end. The elbows he took to the midsection and the eye did not help, but he would have gotten tired anyway. Even the boys who usually do not tire, ended up walking when they should have been running. This is very hard to deal with as a coach. You cannot give them caffeine or uppers durning the game (can you?) as that would be wrong (right?).

What compounds the frustration is that one of the boys who did not show up chose his band activity over soccer today. Three other boys had the same choice, and chose soccer. We certainly cannot fault the boy who chose band, but it is difficult for the soccer coach to watch his team falter when a sub would have helped. Two of the other boys are currently hurt, and the last was out-of-town. Oh well, you can see that even as a fan/dad, I do not take the ties very well. Fortunately, CJ will probably not be playing soccer within a couple of years as he and his band hit the road for some gigs. They will need me along to handle the roadie/manager type stuff, and Beth will need to be there for fan club/tutoring. At least we have a plan.

I have to go to work later, so it is time to spend some time with CJ and relax a bit. Those Target shoppers will probably want me to actually help them with some enthusiasm later.

Until I find my third wind...