When I started this thread I chose the title as a nod to star wars, episode three as this was my third soccer thread. it turns out the name was appropriate.
Today I officially announced that I will not be coaching rec league after this session is over. We have three more weeks left and then, fini.
When I saw the lineup for last saturday's game I knew it would be a cakewalk for my kids. I had all my kids back from vacation and the team we were playing had only scored 4 points in 6 games. They had a points for/against differential of 68. Their coach changed 2 weeks into the session and their strongest player hasn't been back since. My concern going into the game was how to keep my kids challenged and having fun without running all over the other team.
When we arrived and started warming up I realized they only had four players to my ten (I picked up a player's younger cousin somewhere along the line). Easy solution to the day's worries. I talked to the other coach who was really stressed out. The new director had jumped her butt about the importance of her team winning today. She's a good young coach and really cares about the kids. She knew it was an impossible task and pushing the kids harder wouldn't make them more likely to win, but it would certainly make the loss harder on their feelings. She asked me not to run up the score, something I had no intention of doing anyway. I offered her 3 of my players to even the teams out and she gladly accepted. I have learned not to lend Lil Lookout to other teams or our relationship is strained for the next several days and B, his friend and second best player on the team beat the crap out of eachother if they play against the other. So I gave her my 3 next best players and we started the game.
The game was never in doubt because my kids really do work well as a unit, but the game was fun and relatively close until the end. We were winning 5-3 with about 5 minutes left when something changed in the other team and my kids just started splitting them open with passes and tapping the ball in the goal. LL and B each had 2 left foot tapins and an assist in the last 5 minutes. S and S, two kids that rarely score got one each. All said and done the score was 11-4. Their kids were happy because they scored. Our kids were happy because they played and won. The other coach was happy because her players didn't give up before the game was over like they had in previous weeks. I was happy because, although the score jumped at the end, we didn't run all over them for an hour straight.
The director, of course, wasn't happy and he made some snide remarks about overly competitive coaches winning at all costs. He went on to explain that the complex will lose money because parents will not keep paying for their kids to play on losing teams. My first thought was, "you know only half the teams can be winning teams each week, right?" Grrr.
Last night was practice as usual. I was the only one of 4 coaches who showed up for a variety of reasons, so I coached all 4 teams. It was pretty frustrating because there were kids who literally didn't know which part of the foot to hit the ball with. I'm not talking about poor execution due to differences in coordination and skill level, I'm talking about they had never been told the right way to hit the ball. That's wrong. After 8 weeks of practice and 7 games there is no excuse for any of the kids to have not been properly instructed on the basics. I know all kids learn at different rates, but you have to tell them and show them if you want them to learn. They have to learn if you want them to win. They have to win some if you want them to enjoy the game. They have to enjoy the game if you want them to come back. They have to come back if you want more money. Does no one understand this very simple relationship between cause and effect? If the main concern for the director is money, he'd better figure out the steps to get that money. Even if the kids are (wrongly, IMO) not the primary focus the steps are still the same.
I got a phone call this morning asking what the devil I did that caused a number of parents to call the director demanding their kids be moved to my team. Uhhhhh, I coached them in a way that let them have fun, learn, and still let us all go home with smiles on our faces???
*BUZZZZ* Wrong! I obviously did something to convince the best players' parents to move to my team. I sat quietly listening as the director questioned my motives. Then my ethics. I unwisely laughed when he pointed out that my teams only win because I get the best players to move over. Then he questioned my commitment to the club. I calmly and quite reasonably, IMO, informed him that my loyalties are to people not buildings. I let him know that my loyalty and commitment is to the kids, not to his ego, his job, his paycheck. The fact that I can contribute to each of those at the same time is great but not really my concern. I reminded him that just two weeks ago he hosed over 120 kids in a one-sided feud with the former director and my kid and his friends were amongst those 120, so he shouldn't start talking to me about loyalty at this point. He backed off.
Then he called back to let me know he was faxing over my new coaching curriculum. I got it and it is such basic, pointless crap that I would have a hard time keeping my kids awake let alone interested. I was teaching this stuff to 4 year olds a few years ago. He pointed out that he was licensed higher than I am so he obviously knows far more than I do. His methods would bring the scorelines closer together on saturdays. He didn't have an answer when I asked if it would be bringing every team's score up, or just mine down. Fair enough.
In the end I let him know I'd finish out this session, but it was time for me to quit coaching in that program. He got the final word in by telling me he was going to be letting me go after the session ended anyway.
So after this session I will no longer be coaching rec at all. I will be coaching the club program though so I'll still get my fix. I will, however, miss teaching new kids about the game.