Tonight was the first practice for the new(ish) team. The roster is still in limbo. At last update on monday I was to have my 6 returning players and 5 brand new players I knew nothing about. I showed up tonight to find out that two of the five players were rumored to be really really strong players so they were removed from my team. Then I was notified that a brother sister pair I'd never heard of were registered over the phone and had requested my team. Then they were promptly removed when someone else said they were solid players from another club.
As I stood there rolling my eyes with clear and outspoken distaste for this bullshit the story just kept going. I'd gone from 12/13 players last wednesday to 11 on Monday, to apparently 8 tonight. They'd added a boy whose father requested my team for carpooling purposes and a girl no one has heard of. Whatever. Give me the fucking roster and let me play with the kids.
The new girl didn't show up. The new boy has good potential but it is obvious that his previous coach's idea of strategy was to give the boy the ball and have him bulldoze through the opposition over and over. The new kid will come along nicely throughout the session as the other kids do most of the work of molding him to the way we play. I ran my kids through their drills in our quiet little corner of the field. First dummyball in a box for warm ups, then 1 on 6 keepaway, then a dribble/pass drill, followed by red light green light for close control, as always a small side scrimmage to wrap up the evening. My kids know what we're doing and get down to business. No cartwheels, no tag, no pattycakes. Soccer. Foot on the ball, ball on the ground soccer. Pass and move, pass and move.
I was happy with what I saw right up until the point that I saw the new coach backslapping the director and watching my kids. I smelled bullshit coming my way. Sure enough they think they're going to have to pull the new kid from my team because my team is just too strong with a strong player like him.
WTF? The kids isn't even that good. He's quick. He's aggressive, but he's got no skill. The stupid fuckers mistake my relaxed but orderly practice routine for having a team of stars. A team full of stars that no one wanted for their own team a week ago if you remember.
Give me a break. I tell the kids what I want. I show them what I want. I handicap/challenge each player differently as needed for drills and scrimmages. I keep things fun and competitive but don't allow horseplay and silliness during practice. Kids stay involved and interested - duh!?!
Meanwhile, it has come to light, the new coach who was trying to raid my team of my two good players and did get one of them... yeah, five of his players came as a unit from another club but conveniently didn't make it to evals.
But it seems like my new kid is needed to round out his team. WTF? Take the kid, I don't care honestly, but what are you going to replace him with? A garden slug? And if the slug manages to score will he also be taken away or should we just pour salt on him until he stops?
I'm this -------><-------- damn close to being done with the developmental/rec program and just going over to the competitive/club side where the fucking GOAL is to take a stable group of kids and make them a winning unit for a year at a time. I'm tempted. There are 5 kids that I personally feel could/should have been invited into the program after tryouts but were deemed to be surplus. I can take them, Lil Lookout, K, B, and C and make a pretty damn good club team if I can track down two players versatile enough to play goal at the club level. Not as good as Lil Lookout's current team but good enough to give them a run. I think by winter tournament time the teams would be equal because there are a couple of kids still included on the other team due to loyalty rather than skill. (Which is good - the loyalty is to be commended) The club manager would be upset at losing K and Lil Lookout, but he would get over it when he realized I just increased his income by the amount of training fees X 8 while I do all the work.
Eh, whatever. We'll see what Saturday brings.
