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jjmaccrimmonThis weekend was the opening of the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) in the Lancaster / Palmdale region. Both my children are soccer players (Brenna in the U14 girls division and Chris in the U6 boys) and this year, I am coaching my son’s team. This is my first year coaching and coupled with the anxiety of wanting to “get it right” there have been difficulties in working with my division coordinator, but I’ll get to that momentarily.
After several weeks of practice and teaching my herd of cats (smile), er… my team of eager 5 year olds, I felt pretty confident that they would play well with each other and the other team. This was a fairly complicated situation though starting with the number of players. Normally in the U6 division, you play 3 children on the field at any given point during the game and the league requires coaches to play children at least half the game. Here’s the complication, where they normally give the teams 6 players each, I was given 7 players. No matter how they could be rotated in and out of the game, someone wasn’t going to play as much as the others.
To complicate things more, a week before opening day, I still didn’t have uniforms for my team. There had been notice given a little less than two weeks before opening day that the uniforms would be given out by the division coordinator at certain times. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the times noted (due to work or other commitments) and tried to coordinate a time so I could go to get the uniforms at their convenience. No dice, their time was the only option given. So the Wednesday before opening day, I managed to pick up uniforms and got two more surprises. The coordinator blithely noted that he was colorblind and the Black and White team colors were in fact Navy Blue and White. So much for our team banner being the right color… On top of that, he only had 6 uniform sets for our team of 7 boys. Does anyone see a potential problem here? I know my parents saw an issue here. When I spoke with the coordinator’s wife (a board member) on the phone after practice that night, I was told spare uniforms weren’t immediately available and wouldn’t be made available till Monday from the supplier. She further told me that I could either switch jerseys between two of the boys (not the healthiest idea) or I could sit one of my boys out for the game. The second option went against the AYSO principal of “everyone plays” so I threw that was out.
When Saturday rolled around, I went ahead and gave uniforms to everyone except my son Chris. I made arrangements for the one boy on the team who both matched up with him in terms of size and skills to switch jerseys with Chris at the half. As it turned out, my plan to play the one boy at the start of the game and Chris at the end was for the best. Both of them collectively took control of the game. Although we don’t keep score in my son’s division, when my mental note of the goals was 16-3 in our favor, I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head in disbelief. I’ve got two players I know I need to work with personally to help build their enthusiasm and skills. The remaining five (3 who played last year and two newcomers) are looking great. Tonight’s practice should be fun. After the game, I discovered that the remaining uniform had indeed made it in early.
After a quick lunch, we returned to the park for Brenna’s game. Her team is coached by a very wily fellow and skilled coach with a reputation for bringing out the best in teams and individual players. They were opening the season against one of the top coached teams in the small league (4 teams). In a surprisingly hard fought and well played game, her team won 2-1. Brenna surprised everyone at one point in the 4th quarter when the ball came to her. Rather than kick it away immediately, she took the ball more than half way up the field splitting several defenders before being cut off. She then kicked the ball to one of her teammates who promptly took a shot on goal. It was a good day for them.
To celebrate afterward, I took them both to ColdStone for ice cream. They were a pair of happy kids when we headed home to prepare for the second and equally pleasant half of the day – dinner with a lovely lady who’d be joining us that evening. More to follow...
After several weeks of practice and teaching my herd of cats (smile), er… my team of eager 5 year olds, I felt pretty confident that they would play well with each other and the other team. This was a fairly complicated situation though starting with the number of players. Normally in the U6 division, you play 3 children on the field at any given point during the game and the league requires coaches to play children at least half the game. Here’s the complication, where they normally give the teams 6 players each, I was given 7 players. No matter how they could be rotated in and out of the game, someone wasn’t going to play as much as the others.
To complicate things more, a week before opening day, I still didn’t have uniforms for my team. There had been notice given a little less than two weeks before opening day that the uniforms would be given out by the division coordinator at certain times. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the times noted (due to work or other commitments) and tried to coordinate a time so I could go to get the uniforms at their convenience. No dice, their time was the only option given. So the Wednesday before opening day, I managed to pick up uniforms and got two more surprises. The coordinator blithely noted that he was colorblind and the Black and White team colors were in fact Navy Blue and White. So much for our team banner being the right color… On top of that, he only had 6 uniform sets for our team of 7 boys. Does anyone see a potential problem here? I know my parents saw an issue here. When I spoke with the coordinator’s wife (a board member) on the phone after practice that night, I was told spare uniforms weren’t immediately available and wouldn’t be made available till Monday from the supplier. She further told me that I could either switch jerseys between two of the boys (not the healthiest idea) or I could sit one of my boys out for the game. The second option went against the AYSO principal of “everyone plays” so I threw that was out.
When Saturday rolled around, I went ahead and gave uniforms to everyone except my son Chris. I made arrangements for the one boy on the team who both matched up with him in terms of size and skills to switch jerseys with Chris at the half. As it turned out, my plan to play the one boy at the start of the game and Chris at the end was for the best. Both of them collectively took control of the game. Although we don’t keep score in my son’s division, when my mental note of the goals was 16-3 in our favor, I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head in disbelief. I’ve got two players I know I need to work with personally to help build their enthusiasm and skills. The remaining five (3 who played last year and two newcomers) are looking great. Tonight’s practice should be fun. After the game, I discovered that the remaining uniform had indeed made it in early.
After a quick lunch, we returned to the park for Brenna’s game. Her team is coached by a very wily fellow and skilled coach with a reputation for bringing out the best in teams and individual players. They were opening the season against one of the top coached teams in the small league (4 teams). In a surprisingly hard fought and well played game, her team won 2-1. Brenna surprised everyone at one point in the 4th quarter when the ball came to her. Rather than kick it away immediately, she took the ball more than half way up the field splitting several defenders before being cut off. She then kicked the ball to one of her teammates who promptly took a shot on goal. It was a good day for them.
To celebrate afterward, I took them both to ColdStone for ice cream. They were a pair of happy kids when we headed home to prepare for the second and equally pleasant half of the day – dinner with a lovely lady who’d be joining us that evening. More to follow...
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Date: 2005-09-12 02:28 pm (UTC)