Kid's sports - A New Hope

[lookout123]

Wow. Just wow. Those that have read the previous threads know that my old coaching situation became a very negative environment so I moved on. I will not be coaching rec league soccer anymore, but I had agreed to be an assistant coach with Lil Lookout's club team. I agreed to that a couple months ago but as the season drew nearer the assistant tag has disappeared. Although we've had skills clinics throughout the summer the actual season didn't start until last night. I can't even explain how much fun I had last night.

But it's me, so I'll try.

I showed up expecting to have a role that mainly kept me in the background only stepping in when the Head Coach is gone. That was a reasonable assumption because the head coach is also the club president and this particular age is his pet project. I'm fully confident in my abilities to teach kids the game but I didn't expect to get much attention as I've mainly been a rec league coach. Apparently my private coaching work preparing LL, C, B, K, and C for competitive soccer has gone a long way in giving me some unexpected credibility. As it was the first practice of the season we had a brief meeting with the parents beforehand. They've all paid their fees and signed some extremely strict code of conduct agreements but we just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. Apparently I was the only one who was reading the wrong book. Head Coach (HC) made the introductions first. He intro'd himself and then the coaches for the B team. Then he came to me and said "you all know Lookout, he has joined us as my assistant, that means the B team coaches report to him and will be working with him to ensure their training plans are preparing the kids to move up to the A team. He'll also be the primary trainer for the A team since he has coached each of the kids at some point in the last three years." I smiled and waved but inside I was thinking WTF? I'm not qualified to run the training program for a club team. Oh well, too late to do anything now, so off we went. The teams split up and got down to business.

HC and I worked with the A team, running them through a number of drills. A couple of times HC would show a new drill and one of the kids would shout, "coach Lookout had us do that when...". After the third time that happened he turned the practice over to me and asked what I wanted to do. I had him organize a drill to find open space while I set up a 20 by 20 square with mini pugg goals at each end. I got the kids in the box, split them up so it was 4 with HC and 4 with me and we played a small side game where no shot was allowed until three successful passes had been completed. HC and I played with them and it was a blast. We kept the play going unless a real opportunity presented itself. Then we'd freeze them, have them look around, and point out what should have happened - not set plays but free flow smart movement as the focus. All said and done I ran the practice like I did my rec teams but without any time lost to the basics of how to kick a ball, etc.

It was an absolute blast. The kids look good. I know them all except one, so I know the strengths and weaknesses and how to use them. I had eight 7 year olds playing a one and two touch scrimmage for 30 minutes and they really really look good. After we dismissed the kids HC showed me his practice plan he'd written up before hand and while the drills were a bit different, the objectives and coaching points were nearly identical with what I had run the kids through. That was a good feeling and a bit of a settling experience for me.

Our first tournament is 6 weeks away in Flagstaff and it is a very large one. Teams will come from as far as Texas and Washington for this one. Some of the teams have already been together playing as a unit for two years so we have our work cut out for us. In the next six weeks we have to get them working together as a well oiled machine as well as getting them fit enough to play the games at above 7,000 ft.

The main characters in this season's drama will be:

HC - Head Coach
G - Team Manager, admin duties
Me - Assistant Coach
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Lil Lookout
Ba
Br
K
Da
Di
J
S (will play for A and B teams)
Bi (will play for A and B teams)

B team - there are a number of great kids on this team but their skill level is generally lower. As circumstances dictate, we may pull one or two to the A team. On the whole, they are a prep squad who will not play in tournaments, but they do have weekly games of their own. They won't play a major role in the thread.

Unlike the previous threads which covered the adventures of my rec teams over the course of a 10 week season, this is club level. This team will be together for the next ten months so you will probably see greater character development than in previous threads. In fact, one of my goals with this thread is to have a record of the characters more than simply a record of flips, tricks, and kicks.

Anyway, I have to get back to work - 6 weeks to the tournament.