Kid's sports - Revenge of the Coaches

So it begins. Wednesday night I had the opportunity to evaluate the soccer skills of 73 children between the ages of 5-8 years old. Many I knew, many are new.

I was well aware that the general consensus was that I had a stacked team last session so we would destroy the competition. Nobody thought that when teams were picked, but they did by the end of the session. I was told this time we were going to break all the teams up and start over from scratch rather than filling our losses in with players who were new. There are 3 coaches returning and 3 who are brand new guys I've never met before. One of them I'm certain will be a lifelong friend. I knew that from the minute I met him and he gave me a crushing handshake, started juggling a soccer ball, and telling me about all of the Championship teams he's coached for other clubs. BFF, I tell ya.

After two hours of evaluating kids all the coaches sat down with their notes and a huge whiteboard. I sat quietly while R, a returning coach wrote each of our team names on the board then announced he wanted all of his returning kids back. No objections, so he wrote all their names under his team. M made the same statement, so they wrote all appropriate names under her team. They all looked at me expecting the same and I just plainly said I knew there was bitching about my team last time. Two of my stronger players moved up to the next age group so they were out of play. I told them to just write Lil Lookout and B under my team name and then I'll be in the round robin picking for the rest of my team. They all quickly agreed so we started the round robin.

Each kid had been assigned a mutually agreed upon score from 1 to 5, 5 being the bee's knees of skill level. The plan was to go round the table and pick players from highest skill level til they were gone. R's team already had two 5's, and I had Lil Lookout as a 5, so we were out. The other coaches took the remaining 5's at two per team. Then the same with 4's. I had B so I was out. They didn't let me have my next pick from the 4's because he was on my team before and another coach really wanted him. So after all the 5's and 4's are gone I have LL and B and the other coaches have 4/5 of their players filled.

We followed the same process for the 3's, 2's, and were just going through the ones when someone looked up and noticed that everyone who was on my team was a returning player from my last team and that is when the argument started. The two coaches who had kept their teams together just sat quietly while the other 3 coaches and director got on my case about stacking my team. I let them go and go until finally it got quiet and I asked them who was the last coach who got to pick in each round. It was me. How many players did we pick each round? One. How many rounds have we gone? 7. How many of you picked ANY of my returning players when they were sitting in the open pool? ZERO. They argued a bit more but the director finally got my point - Those coaches didn't rate any of my players highly enough to actually pick them for their teams. If my players were so vastly superior in skill, why didn't they pick them? I followed the rules and picked players just like they did - but I rated these kids highly enough to bring back even the one who everybody laughed about because his skill level is a -.5 on a 1-5 scale. Discussion ended there. One of the new coaches - my BFF, of course, was still bent out of shape saying I was still going to run the league and it wasn't fair. I was annoyed and tired as we'd now been picking teams for two hours. I had all the players I specifically wanted (just my returning kids minus one) so I just told them they could assign the rest of my players and I'll take what I get without complaint. They all smirked and agreed as I left.

I got my team sheet today and I have 12 players. That means that if everyone shows up, no player will spend more than half the game on the field - including LL and B. The other players that they assigned me after I left were all of the kids who didn't show up for evaluations. They could be 1's, they could be 5's. All we know is they've never played at our club before. History tells us they're usually 1's. My team has 7 boys and 5 girls with a combine point total of 27 as the unknowns are ranked as 1's. The average point total for the other teams is 37.

Eh, that's cool. I've started from scratch before so I don't mind that, I just hate that I've got so many players that the playing time could be limited. Oh well, we'll see what happens come Wednesday for the first practice.

Team Record: 0-0-0

One view: Tied for first place, undefeated. wooT1!!

Another view: Let's go have some fun with our new friends!

Gonna be a good season, I can tell. :)

See, I'm not real worried about it. It's going to be fun. I haven't seen the kids yet, but I'm fairly confident we can have a .500 season or better. D, my girl that moved up to the next age group was regarded as being too strong of a player and too big of an advantage for our team last session. This is the same girl that about 8 months ago showed up for th first time and stood crying on the field because she was scared and didn't know what to do. Make it fun, give them permission to screw up without repurcussion, and see what happens.

Go for it lookout.
The children who play for your team get exercise, lessons in teamwork, (hopefully) a love of the most popular global sport and a damn good coach.

The haters can go and eat their own livers.

There are several threads that I delight in seeing show up in my New Posts scan, and this will be another one. Thanks l123. No matter what happens, I can't wait for the story to unfold.

My prediction: by the end of the season, every other coach will have a voodoo doll full of pins, that looks just like you. :thumb:

I think they already do Bruce. They're always saying "prick this" or "prick that"... Not sure what to make of it.

On a funny note, I was informed that all good coaches have accents and played at least at the semi pro level. uh huh.

You have an accent ;)

People wonder why its hard to get coaches, these threads kinda show why. Stay with it and blow off steam here.

OK. So this is not part of the normal rec league season but I'll put this story here because I coached the game and Lil Lookout played the game.

This is the game report for the club game from Saturday. Lil Lookout is on an '01 team which means that all kids on the team had to have been born after 01 Aug '00. This is the only '01 team playing in the league so every other team they face is a year older. Sometimes that doesn't mean much, sometimes it is a huge and obvious difference. Saturday was one such day.

I was asked to coach the club team for this Saturday in a game which had the potential to be very disheartening. All sports have rivalries and this is no different, even at this young age. The reason here is that the team we were to face formed after one of their founders was fired from our club for being overly aggressive and nasty to the players, after he was gone it came to light that he stole equipment and money, and he actively recruited our players and coaches with monetary incentives. Come on Jackass, it's a game... for kids. For me it was a little personal, because he is the reason that I wouldn't let Lil Lookout play club the first two seasons he was invited - the man is an overly competitive psychopath. He doesn't like me, I don't like him. We've both taken skin from eachother in the adult leagues. He is the stereotypical "bad coach". He has no loyalty to his players as people found out when he would kick out players if he could find a replacement who was bigger, stronger, better, or willing to pay more. I've never seen more people packed into the club. Every spot in the bleachers was filled. The tables were filled. Standing room along the glass was filled. The club isn't even that full for the semi-pro games we host. With that the stage is set for an intense game.

Our team is built around speed and finesse and as such they look a bit undersized against a lot of the teams. The other team has plenty of skill, but is based on size and power. The difference in appearance was staggering as the teams warmed up. Then the first shot was fired. One minute before kickoff the other coach tried to force us into a forfeit when he claimed that our keeper was not on the roster. The ref verified that he was. Then he protested that he wasn't an '01 player. He had me there. Our keeper was born 4 hours before the cutoff. He won't be able to play with us in the outdoor season, but we are playing an age group up in this league so he is eligible. I pointed that out and the ref verified that he was eligible. So the game began.

I have never seen a kids' game start at such a blistering pace. There was no feeling each other out and looking for weaknesses. The other team just kept pushing and pushing. They had our kids' ears pinned back and it looked like it was going to be ugly. K (technically an '02 player) and B just started playing with the club team this week after a lot of lobbying on my part and were caught completely off guard by the difference in intensity. My defense and midfielders couldn't get out of our side of the field. When the ball did break out our kids were pushed off the ball. Their defenders came up to my chin. K and B barely make it to my elbow. I subbed K and B out and talked to them, reminding them that they both play against me at the park and they aren't afraid of me. While I had my doubts I assured them that they may be smaller but they had greater skill and they just needed to work hard.

As I looked back to the game our keeper punted the ball as Lil Lookout sprinted across the center line. The ball was dropping right in front of a defender who was pressed nearly to the center line when LL crossed in front of him and was able to distract him long enough to flick the ball back over both of their heads. LL rounded the defender to see the ball was going to land halfway between him and the onrushing keeper. He started on a lungbusting sprint and got to the ball at the same time as the keeper. LL barely got a soft touch on the ball before the keeper took his legs out - but the ball kept rolling. In slow motion the ball rolled across the goalline! Commence the celebrations.

The other team pushed forward even harder and were quickly rewarded with a goal from a free kick from outside right. LL, K, and B exchanged some beautiful switches and crosses until a free for all in the goal box ended with K scoring his first club goal. I had to sub him so he could go hug his dad he was so excited. We went into the half tied 2-2.

By this time LL and B2 who are the playmakers due to their creativity on the ball were flat dead on their feet. K and B were starting to gain some confidence though and they are fast straightforward players. I pulled LL and B2 back into midfield roles as they're both aware enough to cover for the other if they break downfield. I put my two most solid defenders in place and told them to guard the alamo - nothing fancy, just clear the ball. Our kids settled into a rhythm of holding the other team up a bit farther from the goal than they had been able in the first half and making them shoot from outside. As soon as our keeper got hold of the ball LL would sprint down the center while K and B ran up the wings. B2 would follow about 15 feet back from LL. LL would get to the ball before the defenders and flick it back to B2 who would then redirect to K or B as LL would sprint back around the defender and take up a center position outside the goalbox with K and B on left and right. Good movement. We managed to hold the other team off and score another one. Now it's 3-2. The kids are running on fumes but they're holding on. LL gets fouled hard outside of the box and puts the freekick into the top right corner. We're up by two points with 2 minutes left. At that point I pull everyone but K back to our half and park the bus to burn time. Our kids would clear the ball downfield and K would sprint at it, so the other team still had to play with two defenders back while we had 5 plus the keeper blocking them from our goal.

The final buzzer sounds and the kids line up. The other coach refuses to shake any of their hands but they didn't notice. As they're jumping up and down after their hard fought win the other coach shouts, "show some fucking class, ya little pricks!" and then had a few choice words for me and let me know what he'd do to me if there weren't kids around. I kindly invited him to either do it or never speak to my kids again. He walked away. Two of his players' parents promptly quit his club and asked for tryouts for their kids.

That was a very satisfying win. I've NEVER seen such an intense game for kids. Did I mention that this team had beat our '00 team 6-1?;)

Now I'm imagining the jackass coach standing in the showers, angrily trying to scrub the failure off himself with a brillo pad, howling unintelligible curse words in between muffled sobs. He's wearing a swimsuit, I'm not sure if that's because he's hiding something (which would explain his hyper-competitive nature) or if it's because I really just don't feel the need to envision him naked. I'll stop talking now. Good story though.

On a completely unrelated tangent, you need some hooligans, maybe even an organized firm. That would be freaking sweet.

You're wasting your time, Lookout. You should be creating a cult, where naked women bring you gold. :lol:

I tried that once, but they all started pissing on me. I realized later I might not have communicated precisely what I desired.

See, this is exactly why I didn't really want my kids to play baseball. It turns out our local town league is very supportive, and the emphasis is on making it a learning experience for all the kids. But that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. My family and I don't need to deal with the kind of behavior you're talking about here.

SteveDallas;453218 wrote:

... But that seems to be the rule rather than the exception...

?

Steve I understand what you're saying. Some people place too much emphasis on winning or being the best at all costs when it comes to their kids' sports. That makes sense though. Think about it, these people don't hide in the basement only to come out and scream and yell on saturday. You live with them everyday - they're the weaksuck coworker who fails at everything. They're the psychopath department head who will grind his people into dust then sell them down the river if there is a chance for a promotion. They're the chest pounding men who grunt and have to point at pictures on menus, only to be completely whipped and under the thumb at home. They're...

Get the point? Even if you don't put your kids in sports they will still see these people eventually - probably when they're doing their kids science fair project. It is good to let your kids see them early on. Teach them the difference between good competitive urges and misdirected aggression. Sports is a nice low threat way to teach your kids how to navigate the minefields of idiocy they will encounter throughout their lives.

IMO

lookout123;453237 wrote:

Sports is a nice low threat way to teach your kids how to navigate the minefields of idiocy they will encounter throughout their lives.

You heard it here first: sports are composed of highly concentrated asshattery. I always suspected as much!

But seriously:

smoothmoniker;452877 wrote:

Sports are important.

They are a constructed environment that is artificially fair, in a way that doesn't exist in the real world; everyone steps onto the same field and abides by the same rules. Within that context, they become a celebration of the best aspects of human nature - perseverance, strategy, self-sacrifice, honor, determination.

You can't understand the importance of sports until you've seen a mathematically eliminated baseball team in the middle of a sweltering August day game, and the middle infielder still runs flat out and dives to catch a fly ball. There is something in that action that is importantly human, and it fitting that we respect and celebrate it.

Physical ability is an exciting part of the game, but those moments where I think sports are at their best, it's when the physical underdog wins out by virtue of their heart and determination. At those times, we see something of the people we would like to be played out by those playing on the field.

Hmmm.. Maybe. I'm not so sure. (But I can't explain why.)

Thanks for pointing out my misteak, HLJ.

:bitching: 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.:banghead: 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. :eyebrow: 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? :mad2:

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. :yelgreedy

Eh, whatever. We'll see what Saturday brings.:rant:

Turnabout is fair play. Especially when it is to expose a technical breach of the rules. Those five kids that somehow didn't get put into the pool with the others? Lobby to have them pulled from that team. All of them. And distribute them among the other teams.

It seems that you are being made to follow the rules to the letter, but others are not. Do not tolerate it. Either make them abide by the rules as well, or use the lax rules to make sure you can field a full side. Soccer is played by teams of 11, and typically has a few reserves as well. If the other teams have players to spare, and your team is short on players, surely there's no harm in doing a bit of "recruiting" to ensure you can field a side on match day.

The management of this league also leaves a lot to be desired. Rules should apply to everyone, and not those who have not had the opportunity to mutter in the director's ear recently.

Tell 'em to go take a flying leap and leave. They'll continue to move the bar until you start losing. Once that happens, they'll say that you only ever won because your team was stacked, and congratulate themselves for uncovering your duplicity.

They'll say the same if you leave, so fuck 'em... do what's right for you and the kids.

Soccer is played by teams of 11

Not at this age. Small side games mean more touches, greater development. We play 6 + keeper so I have a full team. I'm not worried about fielding a team, I'm just tired of hearing BS about team parity. Parity is one thing, purposeful handicapping is another.

I won't pull the BS with his 5 kids either. I'd much rather get my kids in a position to just beat his. Back to the drawing board I go.

And I have no doubt that you will! The next argument will be that they are handicapped by playing more kids and each child having less time with the ball. Hence, you kids will gain more experience faster by getting more playing time. (been here done this) You will be better than they are no matter what happens because you care more about your kids and they more about winning.
Just do your thing dude! In 3,5 or 10 years all your kids will remember "cool coach lookout" The best one they ever had! All the other coaches will still be bitchin and tryin to get their kids onto a stacked team to fulfill their own obvious inadequacies.

I found myself grumbling and moaning about this bullshit last night about 11 as I was finishing up a project for work and it finally hit me like a brick. I've been bitching and blaming the other coaches, director, and parents for taking the joy out of this hobby of mine. How stupid is that? They don't have the ability to irritate me or steal my joy - I have the ability to become irritated and not enjoy something. It is up to me to live my life, make my choices, and maintain my attitudes. The responsibility is all mine, kudos and blame belong to me equally. It is my choice/fault if I become involved in petty pissing matches. This is a premise that I strive to live by all the time but I've been ignoring it in this area. Not anymore.

Well, as of right now I have removed my head from my ass (at least on this issue) and am moving forward. I coach because I love the game. I coach because I love kids. I coach because I want these kids to love the game as much as I do. I firmly believe that kids who are passionate about a hobby or skill are happier, healthier, and less likely to get into serious trouble in their teen years. My goal is to spark and nurture a passion for the game in as many kids as I can while I can.

We will not win all of our games this session but we will approach each game with enthusiasm. We will play hard. We will treat our opponents with respect. We will have fun.

Game on.

Atta boy! Hey "other teams" . . . LOOK-thefuck-OUT!

Wow things have really changed since my son played soccer. Once the kids were placed on a team they stayed on that team unless they chose to leave.

I coached his team one season when there was no one else to do so, it was quite the learning experience. We actually did fairly well as we had most of the team returning. I was given decent training to top off the fact I had been working for several years with the other coach.

It was at this point that the teams were going to "premier teams" and I saw some of the bullshit your experiencing. My son takes after me therefore is very small . He is only 5'6" as an adult. Back then he was much smaller than the other boys even though he was a year older than a lot of them in his grade. He was passed over by the premier teams just on that factor even though he could outrun most of the boys 2 or 3 years older than him. All people see is the need to win, doesn't matter what they are saying to the kids.

I am sure you will succeed with what ever team you work with, because you care about each individual:thumb: . Whether you win or lose, your still winners. :thumb:

lookout123;454311 wrote:

I coach because I love the game. I coach because I love kids. I coach because I want these kids to love the game as much as I do.

Also, you coach because you are good at coaching.

You don't really need to take my advice. Just do as you see fit and all will turn out well. Best of luck with the team this weekend.

Lookout, Sark needs you. :D

Lookout, you might have moaned in this one thread, but to me what has always come across is your intention to make the experience as possible as possible for the children you are coaching.

If you've recognised that other people's opinions were affecting your enjoyment and have decided not to let them then you have my complete respect. But never doubt that you have set many young people a great example regardless of how you felt inside.

The other night in the pub there were only three customers by 22.00. I was hoping they would bugger off as I might get to go home early. Then they started talking about the teachers, youth group workers, coaches and priests who they respected and who had helped them 30-50 years ago. I was almost disappointed when John said I could go as soon as I'd washed the drip trays! I think every adult can remember an adult they looked up to and respected when they were a child. The world needs people like you.

Glad you've decided to enjoy it again.

HA! We won't win all our games this session but the kids will pull together when it counts. Always good to win the session opener. Full match report to follow.

The only reason you might not win all your games, is your hangup about good sportsmanship and the good of the kids. ;)

Good on ya mate! If I were near you I'd be dragging my kids to train with you, even if They couldn't get on the field. YOU DA MAN!

This morning was the first game of this session. The roster had changed yet again since the final roster had been posted on Wednesday, and Monday, and the previous Wednesday. This time they removed a new girl who hadn't come to practice and added a new boy who didn't come to the game.:rolleyes: That meant that we had 7 players, my 6 returning kids plus the new boy who had come to practice. That's ok, it takes 7 to field a team and we had 7 there. Who needs a sub, right?:neutral:

The team we were playing was none other than the one coached by my new BFF, Mr KnuckleCrunching BallJuggler. This is the team that managed to steal C, one of my best players from last session. Of course, it is also the team that somehow managed to end up with 5 kids he used to coach at another club. Weird how that works, huh?

I was there early to get my kids' uniforms ready and was watching the game before ours. It sucked. Jumble ball to the max. I have not seen that poor of a showing in this age group at the club before. The director walked up to me and made a comment about how good it was to see that all the teams seemed to be evenly matched. The first game had been decided by one point, the second by 2, and the current one was tied at 2 apiece. I tried vainly to hold my retort in but, "Do you really think it is a good thing that we have at least six teams who are complete shit?" escaped my mouth. He wasn't amused. Fine, I didn't mean it to be amusing. Our club is generally known for decent quality without the jumble ball that is the stereotypical kids' soccer. I'm pretty concerned about what I saw today and how it will reflect on the club if it wasn't a one off fluke day.

Anyway, it was time for our game. The other team had bigger kids and more of them without a single girl on the team. I know a couple of the kids to be real players as they've been around awhile. I lined my kids up in a pretty neutral manner with my weakest goalie in the box, two decent defenders, the new boy and my wallflower girl as forwards, and Lil Lookout and B in the midfield so they could go forward if they could, but could also drop back and pick up the defensive pieces if we were being pushed around. The whistle blew and then so did the game. Jumble Ball. A complete and utter cluster fuck. My kids all looked confused when a tripping pushing yelling mass of orange shirts started moving all over the field as if they were all tied together at the waste. No structure, no positioning, no direction from the sideline. My kids were so flustered by what they saw that we gave up a point in the third minute. That snapped them back to life and they started to play.

The problem is that it is hard to play well when the opposition plays jumble ball. My kids had possession and LL and B took shot after shot only to watch it bounce off one of the 7 orange jerseys running around the goalbox. LL got frustrated and then bored before retreating back to the center circle where he just stood and watched the strange situation. Soon B did the same thing. So now I have a bored goalie, two bored defenders, two extremely bored and annoyed midfielders, and two forwards bouncing around like pinballs in a sea of orange. At one point the ball rolled out of the mess straight to LL. No one came out to pressure him. He was so bored with the whole thing he stood in the center circle and started juggling the ball in his awkward, just learning how way. When he popped it up and kicked the ball towards the goal he just shook his head in disbelief that he had held the ball for nearly 30 seconds without a single player coming near him. From that point on any time the ball came out, LL, B and the defenders would just pass it around for awhile before taking an outside shot just to put the ball back near their goal. B finally moved up and started shooting again and managed to put a couple points in.

At the half the other coach brought his best player out of the goal. He never should have been in there considering the kid was his best ball handler. Of course he put a kid in who had never played goal before but that only lasted about three seconds because he threw the ball at the new keeper to give him the ball... and it smacked the unprepared kid in the face. That keeper came out crying with a bloody nose and another went in. After that the game opened up a bit. It was still dodgy at best, but at least they spread out a bit more. LL was in the goal with a decent defense. B and the new kid, C, were up front. The new kid can't really shoot, pass, or dribble but he runs a lot. K was in the right place to score off a deflection. Then C did the same. The scoreline was 4-1 in our favor. LL came out of the goal but he and B just weren't shooting. I pulled B off the field and asked him what was going on (I know I'll get a straight answer from him rather than LL's hemming and hawing). It turns out that LL and B had overheard someone talking and were afraid that if they scored they'd break our team up and they wouldn't play together anymore. :mad2: Who did they hear talking? The other coach, of course. Bullshit. I pulled both of the boys off the field and played short for a couple minutes while I talked to them. The other team scored two points but nobody seemed to mind much. I told both boys that I expect them to go out and play as hard as they could because this is a game. You come to play and you hope to win. I assured them that no matter what the scoreboard said they would still be playing together next week. I put them both back in and told them that as long as they each scored once with their left foot they could do anything they wanted. They were both all smiles when they went back out and for the first time, my kids started playing like the team I know they are. Not great individual players, but a good team. In the next ten minutes LL scored six points and B scored four. The other coach walked over and demanded to know what the hell I was doing. He is probably still trying to figure out how "blow me" answered that question. With 30 seconds left B played the most delightful 3/4 of the field, sliderule pass to LL and after LL tapped it in around the keeper the two of them ran back to the center circle and did a passable impression of the Samba. Cocky? Sure. Funny? Oh, yeah.

I gathered the kids and we did the usual cheer for the other team before shaking hands. The two teams shook hands and joked around with each other. The coach didn't say a word to any of my players before giving me a knuckle grinder handshake and staring me down while I smiled and told him, "don't worry man, it's hard when you have a bunch of kids you've never coached before". I'm still not sure if he realizes I know he brought some of these kids from another club and he had taken one of my best players.

C - my old player- was pretty upset after the game because he doesn't like being on the other team and he wants to come back.:sniff: He cheered up a bit when I reminded him he was still going to play in a tournament I registered some of them for next weekend.

My dad had been sitting in the stands listening to other parents complain about stacked teams and making crappy comments about LL and B not belonging there. Whatever. They're still the two youngest on the team and would be playing kids 3-4 years older than them if I moved them up so the haters can bite it.

The sad thing is that no one seems to realize that the other team had more individual skill, they were bigger, and they had subs. Not a single one asked "what should our coach be doing differently?" because they were too busy believing the deck was stacked against them. Ah, the cult of victimhood and the joy it sucks from their lives.

The kids played well and had fun. What more can you ask for?

Until next time, keep the Samba going.

1-0-0

The US Olympic team needs you. :D

Is cloning possible yet? We need about a dozen of you out east.

Here's what I think. You should start the game with your team, and then when you are up by at least 5 and the other side is bitching about it being stacked, trade teams. Just trade, mid-game. Tell LL to play as well as he can, but obey the other coach's instructions, whatever they might be. When your "new" team is well ahead, switch back and bring your team from behind. Do this as many times as is necessary to prove that the jumbleball coach sucks.

That would be hilarious and an awesome challenge but I'm afraid that if I ever suggested something like that my family would have to identify my remains.

Ohh but L123 - you should still submit the idea to your "fearless leader" He might actually think about its feasibility for awhile. Then again, he may bring up the idea at the next bored meeting. This could be fun. Think of how the other coaches will be squirming too - lol.

I really don't know what they're complaining about. It's not as if my kids can do this:

[youtube]n3eEpqLi-DU[/youtube]

Those guys rock. First the chicks are checking them out, and then the cops show up. Two things that always go together.

Except in this case it wasn't preceded by "here, hold my beer".

Ha! Waiting for me in my email this morning was a forward. This email has bounced back and forth among several coaches and parents at the club with everyone getting their $.02 in. It started with one coach questioning how my team ends up near the top of the standings every session if teams are picked fairly. Several people piled on with the "yeah!" type of huffing and puffing. Then one glorious example of intellect and integrity stepped up and informed everyone that my team has/had 8 different club players on the roster over the last year. One person did step up and point out that some of those kids just went to tryouts for the first time this month and weren't officially on the team yet.

I got to thinking about that and composed a simple reply acknowledging that I have, in fact, had 8 different club players in my squad over the last 12 months. Then I pointed out that not a single one of those players was a club player when they came to my team. In fact six of them just went to there first club tryout this month. I picked kids I liked, often who had parents that I had witnessed being good sports around the complex. I coached them, encouraged them, and where I saw something extra I encouraged the parents to consider club tryouts. I begged, borrowed, stole, and in one case paid to get them all a tryout with the club team when they were completely under the radar. Then I ran through the individuals.

Lil Lookout: Then:When he first stepped on the field nobody wanted him because he was too small. One of the reasons I stepped in as coach - no one wanted to be responsible for him getting hurt. Even now people who don't know him say he's too small because he easily gives up 15 lbs to his peers. Now: People complain he should move up an age group even though he still has a year and a half eligibility in this league.

B: Then: No one wanted him because he is hyperactive and ADD. Now: they comment about how he is a tireless fighter with a lust for goals.

They are both on my team now.

C1: Then: He was never picked by the same coach twice in a row because they didn't know what to do with him. Now: He is a 1st choice defender or midfielder and a 2nd choice keeper.

C2: Then: No one wanted him because he's just happy go lucky and not competitive. Now: he's an excellent midfielder who is willing to play any position you ask him to.

K: Then: No one wanted him because he is even smaller (a year younger) than Lil Lookout and doesn't have the nose for goal that he does. Now: He's an awesome natural left footer who leads the league in assists.

L: Then: Too slow. Too quiet. Not a fighter. Now: Knows he isn't fast but has developed awesome positional awareness and is an excellent defensive midfielder and a decent keeper.

M: Then: Good player but uninterested. Now: The total package. Big, can shoot, pass, dribble, and is unbeatable as a defesnsive midfielder. Just don't yell or he shuts off and is done. Don't make him tie his shoes either, he is uncomfortable with anything tight on his feet. weird, but true.

G: Then: Big and good positional sense but doesn't shoot well. Now: The single most powerful striker in the league. I don't like blocking his shots because they HURT. The key is he may be left handed and do everything else as a dominant left... but not shoot a soccer ball. His right foot is deadly anywhere from center field in.

All of these boys has been moved from my team for one reason or another. Two of them moved when their dad/dad's friend started coaching, two moved to the next age group, one only plays club now, one was taken to another team this session.

I suggested that instead of assuming I had stacked teams, consider that I saw kids whose talent wasn't being tapped and then gave them some encouragement as they became confident in their skills. I suggested that in the developmental league MAYBE we shouldn't be so concerned with the final score as we are with giving kids confidence to step out of their comfort zone by giving them permission to make mistakes without worrying about the consequences. I pointed out that my current team has less skill per child than the other teams in the league but can still hold it's own in games. Why? Because they are having fun they play hard and work as a team, this leads to them winning. It works in that order. They don't work hard, play as a team, and have fun because they win. Get the priorities straight.

It didn't take long for the replies to come flying back in that it is easy to have an attitude like that when my team is unbeatable. :right: OK, seriously? Did you not even read what I wrote? I invited them to come to the tournament on saturday and watch what happens. It is a club tournament that Lil Lookout would have played in anyway, but some kids were getting left out because the rosters are locked at 7 players. So I took (with the director's blessing) Lil Lookout and formed a second team to put in the tournament.

Lil Lookout and D (the keeper) are the only two regular club players. K, J, C1, C2, and B all just tried out for the team but haven't played for a club yet. So I am effectively taking a team of rec kids to a club tournament. The tournament is for all players 8 years and under. I'm taking one 8 year old, two 7 year olds, three 6 year olds, and a 5 year old(almost 6). They've never played or practiced as a unit, but each one has played at least a couple games with at least one other person on the team. We won't win the tournament but we should win at least two games out of the five we are guaranteed. I think we will at least be competitive in the others. I guarantee they'll walk away smiling regardless of the point total.

Anyway, I threw down the challenge that if I can take this group into this tournament and win at least two games the haters have to drop the issue until the end of the session. Then we will discuss what changes we can make to our coaching program instead of trying to fix the problem by moving kids all over the place and separating them from their friends. We will work on coaching personalities and kids instead of jamming skills and drills down their throats like they're all little clones.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Ha! All that planning and nothing to show for it. The tournament was cancelled. A few weeks ago I spoke with the people in charge of the tournament and was told that they already had six teams for that bracket, but they would make room for my teams. I put together two complete, equally balanced teams for the 8 and under age bracket, and one team for the 10 and under bracket. Trust me when I say it wasn't easy to get parent buy in for the middle of a holiday weekend. Two days before the tournament I heard a rumor which I explored and found to be fact. The only three teams in those two age groups were the ones that I assembled and registered. The other teams fell away for one reason or another. Anyway, no tournament.

It was really weird and awkward not having any soccer games for the weekend. Lil Lookout, 2.0, and I just sat around staring at each other Saturday morning for awhile before we realized we had better go find something to do. Talk about creatures of routine.

There will be no updates for this thread for the next couple weeks because we leave for Hawaii early Saturday morning. That means I had to find someone willing to step in and coach in my absence. No problem. I also had to find someone to coach them the way I like. Not a huge problem. I got B's dad to cover for the next couple weeks and possibly longer.

Coaching is going to be a bit difficult for me for awhile. I've had a string of injuries for going on 9 months now. Last fall I picked up playing in an outdoor league in addition to my normal indoor leagues. It was a blast and I had a load of fun, but I should have dropped another league rather than playing more. The body just isn't as young as it used to be. It all started out with a back injury from a slide tackle I suffered. I kept playing and was ok, but then the last game of that season I suffered a horrible groin pull. I've never had that before and should have taken some time off to heal, but I'm not that smart so I kept playing. The cycle really started there. Because the pain was pretty intense I fell out of my normal exercise routine and just played my games with plenty of advil. I would be pain free just in time for the first game of the week and in real pain by the last game of the week. But I kept going. I knew I was getting slower and not playing as well but I kept going. Pulled hamstring. Kept going. Back again. Kept playing. Twisted ankle. Kept playing. About a month or so ago I pulled the groin muscle again, but it felt worse. It went up higher. Then to my horror I realized in the shower that my six pack had become a seven pack. I tore the muscle and have a hernia. I knew I was going to have to have surgery for that, but wanted to wait until June when I got back from Hawaii. So I kept playing.

Murphy and his Law have passed judgement on my stubborn stupidity. I know full well that if you don't take the time to heal from injury that you will pick up other injuries as the body compensates. I knew that is what I was doing all year. But I kept going right up until Mr Murphy said "OK dumbass, it's time for you to take a break."

It was the Championship game for my Friday night team and my knee felt a little wonky during warm ups. I was going to take it fairly easy and planned to sub out a lot. Then fate intervened and put us in a situation with no substitutes. OK, whatever I warned everyone that I wouldn't be running as much as usual because my knee was sore. 45 seconds into the game I cleared the ball from the top of the goalbox when I felt my left knee give out. And then start burning. A lot. Like someone was holding a lighter to my skin. I knew that wasn't good so I hung back on defense for the next five minutes waiting for it to subside. We had no subs so I couldn't go out. Over the course of the game I discovered that kicking forward or in towards my body caused no discomfort. Lifting my foot up towards my butt or moving my foot out to the side gave me a pain that I can only equate to someone ripping my testicles out through the back of my knee.

Normally my greatest contribution on the field is my speed. I nearly always win the 50/50 ball. That night running was pretty much out ofthe question. I could do it and felt no pain during the effort, but after I stopped my leg was on fire. Strangely, I played one of the best games I have in quite some time. I scored a hattrick ( including a goal from center circle) - which is a once a year event for me. :D Yes, I know that common sense should have told me to sit out and ice the knee but I figured the damage was already done and if I was going to miss some time from the game I was going to enjoy this one night. We won the game 9-7.

Now I can't even play with the kids like normal. My knee is shot. So I am now relegated to coaching from a distance in a more hands off fashion. That's where B's dad comes in. He is going to fill in for me until I can fully recover.

When I get back from Hawaii I have an appointment with the doc for the hernia and the knee. I'm probably looking at two surgeries (depending on cost) and at least a couple months with no soccer. :(

Ooh, that sucks, Lookout! I hope you relax and get a little healing on some of these injuries over your holiday. In fact, you are probably already there. Anyway, I am sorry to hear you are in so much pain!

Really sorry to hear it Lookout.
Impressed with your sang froid and acceptance of your part in the injuries - I never hear you moan, "Why me?"

Have a wonderful time in Hawaii (is it National Hawaii Vaction Year in 2008 or something?) and keep us well up to date when you come back. even the icky bits.

You'll be back.

Sundae Girl;457794 wrote:

Have a wonderful time in Hawaii (is it National Hawaii Vaction Year in 2008 or something?) and keep us well up to date when you come back. even the icky bits.

It's funny, Pete was pushing for Hawaii this year as well. For no good reason, it's never been on my list, but I guess I'd go.

You guess you'd go?
You'll do what you're told... and like it! :haha:

The only time in my life I liked a sports column page :P

No really! It was great getting to know you and the team.:)

AHA! The dad I asked to fill in for me did exactly what I wanted. He sent the kids out and let them play without the intent of destroying the other team to prove he's a stud. The team won both games by one point each.

I'm contemplating roping the dad in as a "permanent assistant coach", with my true intent being that he'll step up and take the team in a session or two if I decide to move LL up to the next age group. I wouldn't want to leave the kids behind with a coach who uses a philosophy counter to what I've been teaching them. This might be the perfect time to give us all a new challenge.

On a side note, while the knee is still painful the doc has decided surgery is unnecessary at this point if I rehab it properly. I've been running with only minor pain and will start some balance and light weight training this week. My hope is to start making short appearances in games that are slower paced in two weeks. We'll see.

Even better news is that the hernia, while there is much more minor than previously thought. Surgery, while still ideal, is not mandatory. Apparently the real problem was a nasty groin pull that this break has done well for. I'll be rehabbing that at the same time. My goal is to be back on the field and playing at full speed in 5 weeks.

This is a great thread lookout. First, I hope your knee recovers soon. You don't miss the water until the well run dry.

Next I'm just floored by the victims of your apparent talent at finding the strong points in kids, then nurturing that w/o crushing them. I bet that m.o. is so foreign to them it can only be seen as some sort of underhanded ploy to them.

Anyhow, I once heard a man say if you want to judge the quality of a teacher, look at the students he produces, they are a reflection of him.

The reason the other teams suck probably has everything to do with the other coaches being sucky coaches, not your stacking the players.

sheesh.

This thread quit being a straightforward description of the team's season and has become a hodgepodge of bitches, moans, bits, and pieces, with some soccer thrown in. Unfortunately, but appropriately it pretty well matches the general state of the soccer club and the people involved with it. :(

Brief history. The President/ partial owner of the sports complex was also the president/director of the competitive soccer club. (A large and silent investor was the backer for the complex) These were two separate entities but in the mind of the public they were inseparable. The President is a friend. He is a very flawed individual who is generally incompetent in the role of president for a large business. Some of us tried to help him along, but it just didn't stick. What resulted is those of us that stayed acknowledged that there would always be some annoying quirks to the companies but we were all family, so to speak. We always welcomed new people in and tried to help things grow.

A year ago it was decided that a Soccer Director was needed specifically to run the soccer program. S moved in from out of state to take the job. He quickly became a friend and joined one of the teams I play on. I, and others, have given him a variety of help during that year. We were excited that he had a passion for the program. As he became one of us he seemed to understand that yes the business had issues but it was profitable and some of the issues had actually reached the point of being a positive. Because of the laid back attitude and our desire to keep things friendly and open people treated the flaws as just part of the whole and looked past them. When a business is run like a business and the customer is just treated like a customer that product had better be flawless if you want people to be happy. When people feel like they are a part of something they will be more lenient. Anyway...

Three weeks ago, the President was fired from the complex. It was quiet and they presented it as a mutual parting of the ways so he could focus on the soccer club alone. But the word was leaked pretty quickly by S, the director. Now I knew that S never liked working for the President, but I didn't know that apart from the friendship he had with all of us, he'd been building a strong relationship with the silent investor. It turns out that he really threw the President under the bus and he is now the new General Manager for the complex. Uh, ok, I can deal with that. They're both friends, but it is business and can be cutthroat. I don't like it, but it doesn't really affect me so, ok.

Except now the changes are rolling in. Apparently the new coaches that came in for this new session are part of the change. A bunch of new referees have popped up to replace guys that have left too. That is a good thing, but overall the new guys are pretty substandard. The biggest difference is the attitude. Because I've been out with my knee injury and on vacation I was out of the loop for two weeks. I came back to find I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

I knew it was going to be a weird day right from the start. We were driving to the complex for Lil Lookout's first game. He was unusually quiet until he asked how many games we had left. I told him I thought 4. He asked if he had to play in them. *gulp* He followed quickly with, "I want to move up to the next age group". He is still a year too young for that group but could probably hold his own, but I just asked him why. His answer was since the new kids moved up the games were boring. He can dribble and score on all of them and everytime we get players on our team that pass well together they make his friends go to another team because they score too much. He was very mature in the way he finished by saying, "I shouldn't have to worry about someone getting mad if I score a goal".

Holy crap. my just turned 7 year old is stressed out because he can't play soccer with his friends without some adult getting jealous and handicapping him or taking his teammates away.

I told him that we had to finish this session but we can be done after this.:sniff: My hope is/was that the feeling would pass and he'd relax.

The game was horrible. 3 of my 9 kids weren't there, so I borrowed a kid to stand in the goal. Lil Lookout scored a couple of nice goals right in the beginning but I could tell the joy wasn't there. He tried to pass to the new kid who upon looking at the ball, fell over. It just wasn't a fun game.

The turf needs to be stretched so kids were falling. One of the new refs started warning the kids about "sliding". I pointed out that they were just falling - they are 6 and 7 year olds playing on crummy turf, after all. His answer was that he thought they were doing it on purpose. I asked if he'd ever met a 6 year old before. He just glared at me. Ten minutes later one of my kids gave up a penalty. The ref warned us that it was number 3. (4 results in a PK shoot out). I reminded him that it was actually 2. He told me to be quiet that it was 3. I asked what the fouls were. He was correct about two of them, but the third was on the other team. No big deal he just counted it wrong, but he wanted to be a jerk about it. He came over and told me that it was three, I was wrong, and he knows how to count. I suggested that if that is the best he can count then he should get off the field. He started to get really pissed then, but the other coach stopped laughing long enough to explain that I was right. One of the fouls was against his team, "That's why you let his team take the kick remember?" Now he's steamed but has the count right.

Back to the game. A few minutes later their team is pushing up against our goal. Their kid shoots and hits my brand new, no nothing kid in the stomach. He instinctively catches the ball, then drops it. Hand ball, no question. My kids start to line up a wall but the ref announces it is a shootout, just the keeper and the shooter. I remind him that it is only the 3rd foul. He says it doesn't matter that it's a handball in the box, so it's a PK. I explain that he is using outdoor rules, while indoor club rules call for a different ruling. He ignores me. I tell him again. He turns around and tells me to shut up or he'll have me evicted from the building. I told him that was fine, as I was just trying to help him realize that EVERYONE watching the game was wondering WTF he was doing and that he just MIGHT be wrong. I told him to check with the other refs after the game since it is a pretty frequent occurrence with kids. He got pissed and shouted that he was going to evict me. I laughed and sent a parent to get S, the director/GM, my friend, his boss, over here to decide if I would be tossed or not. S came over, listened and reassured me and the ref that I would be there coaching as always, he informed the ref the call was wrong, but the point will stand because you don't overturn calls. Cool, I'm satisfied if annoyed.

The game ends and we lost by a point. That's ok, it's good to lose a game here and there. I was satisfied because I was hoping people would quit talking about my supposedly "stacked" team.

The other coach came over and asked me what all had happened. I told him. Another coach, who is a friend, listened in and laughed. I walked away thinking it was all over. S stormed over and pulled me into a locker room. He asked what I had been telling the two coaches. I explained once again that the coach had been giving attitude I didn't need when I pointed out the differences between indoor and outdoor play. He got in my face about "not needing his employees making a scene", "poisoning other employees", then he pointed out that my team was "like 38-1 don't make a scene because you lost". WTF? He knows me well enough that the record doesn't matter, it's about the fun. I reminded him of that, but he was still a little over the top. He walked away to leave me wondering what all the business about employees was about. Employees? Since when are we employees? I don't get paid. I'm a coach. I don't feel like dealing with the paperwork required to pay me, so I do it for free, just like the other two guys I was talking with. It was just kind of a shock that all of a sudden we're expected to act like cowering little employees. Whatever.

I was frustrated as I sat down on the bleachers but not overly worried. Then people started asking if I was going to keep coaching. Apparently, they'd heard S telling someone he didnt' need coaches who make waves. I assured them I'd still be there. Then B's dad asked if I was taking LL to tryout at a nearby club this week because of all the drama. "No, I have no plans to do that. Wait, what are you talking about?" Apparently the complex decided there was no room in the schedule for our club kids to play the next session. Oh boy.

I went to S and asked what was going on and he just said "i've been answering that all morning". I agreed he probably had, but people were coming to me, wanting advice on something I know nothing about. I don't like rumors and gossip, so I wanted the facts. Apparently the rec program has grown so much that there just isn't room for all the games we normally scheduled. (No additional teams have formed so I don't understand that reasoning) I looked at the timeblocks and noticed the only two age groups that didn't get time on Saturdays were U8 and U10, coincidentally the only two age groups the former President personally coaches. Although denials were adament, it is pretty clear they are just flipping off the former President. Fine, except that means 120 kids don't get to play soccer now. He insisted that wasn't true - he'd blocked out two hours on two nights during the week where those age groups could play. So that means that we could fit 4 teams per age group, while we currently have 6-8. EXCEPT that those times are directly across from the established and well known times that those same kids have club practices each week on outdoor fields.

He went on to point out he is the GM and he is going to make this business soar. The numbers are going to be awesome. Unlike anything we've imagine. OK, Captain Optimist - but remember that rule about "treat people like customers and they'll expect to be SERVED like customers"? He said a few other things that made it perfectly clear that anyone who didn't like it could leave because the business would be booming with new customers now that it is professionally run. He used subtle but clear language that the people that could leave were those of us who'd been there since the doors opened. Those of us who helped him move from out of state. Those that helped him through his divorce. Those that played on teams with him. Those that had welcomed him as one of us.

That was Saturday. I haven't answered my phone since then because I didn't want to deal with it. As of an hour ago I had received 74 voicemails and countless text messages asking what I was doing, where I was going, etc.

The soccer club is now exclusively an outdoor club. They just announced the teams for the 08/09 season two weeks ago. I am on the coaching staff. Lil Lookout is the centerpiece on the A team. The players I busted my butt to get in are all on the team with him. Some of the parents are nervous about all the drama. I coached their kids rec and am doing it in Club as well. A nearby club offered me the chance to form a team under their umbrella and run it as I see fit. The parents seem to think that is a great idea for stability issues. My own sense of loyalty tells me to stay right where I am while my weariness is pulling me towards quiet stability.

I will most likely be coaching for the club side as planned, right where I expected to be, with the kids I know.

The rec program though? I've got a feeling I'm going to be pushed out. That sucks. Another layer of suckiness is that is where I play as well. If they're trying to sweep out any memories of the people who started the place up, does that mean I'm not welcome to play there anymore as an adult, either? What sucks is that the complex isn't just a building or business, it is a community. We started up there with twenty 4,5, and 6 year olds, about the same 7 and 8's, and so on. Kids played on multiple teams to fill out the schedules. We adults did the same thing. I've personally started 5 different adult teams up there, moving on when each was strong enough to stand on it's own. Our core group all have 6-8 year olds who have been in that building 4-6 days each week for 4 years. We raised our kids in there.
I could not have predicted all this drama before this session began. And all this for a hobby. So much time, energy, and effort spent to build something that was more than just a game.:(

When hobby meets business, children, and those that care about them, lose.:(

Lookout that sounds crummy.
I will admit to not understanding a lot of it, but I get enough to know they're messing with something that should have been left well alone.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

yeah, I just went back and reread that. I didn't do very well telling the tale. Long story short is that new guy pushes old guy out. New guy goes off deep end. Decides most prudent thing would be to push everyone who was involved in the old way of doing things right out the door even though they weren't especially upset about the change of management.

lookout is old school and bummed at the changes so he came here to whine and cry. lookout also thinks lookout will just start speaking in third person. get it?;)

The thing that confuses me most is the rec vs. club distinctions. So these are entirely different leagues, but they are in the same facilities and have a ton of the same players and coaches? I get that "club" is supposed to be more elite, I think... but why would one play in more than one league? Just more fun game time to be had?

Rec program is open to all, from the kid who has never seen a ball, to the stepover king who can hit the corner of the net from midfield. If you walk in the door we'll find a team for you. We'll the basics and as advanced as we can get depending on the kids. One practice, one game each and ever week. Kids come and go through this system. It is basically what we all grew up with. (Very inexpensive and low commitment)

Club is on a tryout basis. While we have multiple teams for each age group that play in different divisions based on team skill level. All kids in the program are more advanced than the average rec player. Not much time spent on the basics as they already know that. More advanced skills are taught, more strategy, etc. 2-3 practices per week, 1 game per week, and tournaments throughout the year. All the pros and college players went through this system. (Depending on the club and age, can cost $1500-7,000 per year, and requires a lot of commitment)

Most of the club players play in the rec leagues throughout the year just for fun and more games. That stops as they get older but when they are younger they'll play any game they can get into. They are, of course, split up in the rec leagues so as not to completely dominate. Most club coaches also coach rec teams as well. For some of these guys it is a significant part of their income. It is more than a hobby and passion for them, it is the way they pay their bills. Many club coaches also coach at schools as well.

The complex (buildings, fields, rec program) were all opened by the same guy who started the club program (a program that is not directly tied to a field or building). The complex required financial backing from an investor who was formerly silent. The club required a small financial commitment and a lot of effort which we have provided. Up until the club operated out of the complex and was effectively an arm of the complex program. The former President was relieved of his duties for the complex by the investor. Now he only has the club program and all ties have been cut.

So... the old guy still "owns" the club league, and will have to move it to another set of fields/buildings?

Is it even possible for the complex to make money just with the rec league? Or is that the deal, that the new guy is kicking out the old club so that he can try to start up a new club in those buildings?

For the average family they don't even know there has been a shake up. they bring their kid to practice and games and that won't change. The rec league is pretty large and turning a pretty healthy profit. I've looked at the books. The only way to make more money is to extend the hours (they won't), build more fields (they can't), or charge more (they will), expend less (i think that is responsible for the lower quality in refs).

I expect the new guy to start a new club system, but i don't think he'll have enough time to do it before this year's competition starts. The season runs from Aug/Sept through May so he'd have a hard time getting tryout information disseminated fast enough. You never know though.

Our club team will exist as an outdoor entity only now. We already had lease agreements for outdoor fields and we'll keep using those. The club program isn't profitable enough for anyone to make a living on it yet, but it is self sustaining. In the last 24 hours it has been decided to launch spring and fall outdoor rec leagues as well. That should bring us another 500 kids registered during the year. That will bring in more money and grow the club significantly.

I, and a few others, are in the process of signing sponsorship agreements which will help the club with short term finances as well give me a little more business exposure.

Where there is a will there is a way. The phone calls and text messages have changed from panic and confusion to statements that whereever I land, the kids will follow. I've tied my anchor to the program we've built over the last four years. I will continue to coach and participate there. The only thing that is really questionable is if I still have any place at the old complex. We'll see. I don't want to burn bridges because it is the only really good adult program close by.

Dude, You either must really really love coaching and soccer to put up with all that BS or else you are a masochist.

My blood pressure is up just reading that shit.

Met and spoke with most members of our informal core group of supporters last night. The general consensus is that anyone who was tied, even marginally, to the old club program is being ushered out the door, not be the investor/owner, but by the new GM who has dreams of starting a new club program. He obviously didn't believe he could recruit any of us (which is stupid) and wants all new bodies in there to recruit club kids for. Stupid stupid stupid.

Our program officially announced the new rec program which will start in the fall. Our club/competitive program is already in full swing. Non compete agreements prevent the former president from being a part of any new building/complex, but it has no impact on anyone else. Inquiries have come to us about interest as there are two investors who are interested in building a new complex if we will bring it all together. We've decided to investigate that but I won't do too much unless I've got some skin in the game. I will not help build another successful organization and see it yanked away by an investor who stayed at arm's length.

We shall see.

So, just recruit all new people with the snap of his fingers, will he? Hmmm... Seems like there might be a finite number of capable and motivated people within a geographic area?

Not if you stroke the parent's ego and tell them their kid is ready for club level competition. Parents want to believe it so it isn't hard to get them going. He has already shown that the kids aren't his primary concern, so what if they aren't ready as long as he gets $$$?

I meant a whole new staff of coaches etc.

Wouldn't all parties interested in that position, within a given area, already be doing it, i.e. the guys he's firing?

As much as I'd like to believe so, the truth is no. There are a handful of guys that have blown out of there over the last couple of years over differences in philosophy. Some of them have popped back up recently so I would expect them to step in. Some coaches might move over from other clubs. Some dads will step up and coach their kids' teams. He'd be able to get the rec league pulled together very quickly.

The club program is a different case, but it wouldn't be that hard either. He would serve as director and get some of his better rec coaches to work as assistants. A couple coaches that are with our program now might be swayed if they saw better income, responsibility, etc. He'd get college kids as interns to work as trainers. Without judging quality, the actual job of getting people really isn't that hard. Getting loyal people though? Very difficult. You have to remember that for a lot of these men and women coaching is their job not necessarily a passionate hobby.

In all honesty with $3,000,000 in backing (which is what he has right now) I have absolutely no doubt that I could turn our current club into the premier club in the state. He should have no problem putting a new one together that will be competitive within just a couple years.

The whole thing should be strictly non-profit, volunteer work. Involving children in a business that way seems obscene. The word exploitation comes to mind.

I don't mind it being a for profit organization (although ours is a non-profit) if the kids are put first. Professional coaching can be viewed as a product if it isn't your passion.

Most rec programs are volunteer. Some are done well, some aren't. Quality control can be maintained better if the coaches are paid though. Not that they are paid much, just that they get something. Strangely enough, it is easier to dismiss someone you are paying than it is to dismiss a volunteer.

If someone is looking to "make money" I think that this is the wrong business for them. Of course, it's a product that people want, so it's inevitable that the market will treat it as a way to make money.

I'll disagree there. I have a career that takes care of my needs. While it's a job I enjoy, it doesn't fill me with passion. I'm cool with that because I'm a work to play kind of guy. Some people need to be passionate about their jobs and they are willing to earn less money in exchange for that. Coaching club soccer will make no one rich. Most of the coaches make less than $2000/year. A couple make $5-10,000. When the club is successful in full swing the top guys might make $50-70K but that is about it. Unless they are coaching for a large school or university it isn't a path to riches. But some coaches put a lot of time and effort into the job and they should be compensated otherwise they may not be able to do so.

example: I don't accept pay because of my licenses, but the coaches who coach at the level I do at the lowest base pay earn $250-400 every 10 weeks for that. 5 sessions per year = $2000 at the high end. If they coach 5 teams at a time that is $10,000/year. If they do private coach at $30/hr they might pull in a couple thousand more, but they certainly aren't getting rich. Most guys who are trying to live off it are either full time staff at a large club or work for a school as well. These guys are doing it for love of the game and kids.

Let's look at a breakdown of the costs:

A kid who is on the club team from Aug until May will pay $825 in training fees. That will give them 3.5 hours practice per week and at least one game every weekend. They will also pay $400 for state registration and uniform costs (no profit there). They will also pay tournament costs (divided amongst players with no padding for profit).

On a team with 10 kids count on at least one of them receiving a fee scholarship, so let's count just 9 paying kids to bring us to $7,425. If the club has 20 teams in operaton then you've got $148,500 in training fee income during the year. Sounds great.

Then you subtract:
Field rental agreements. Last night we had 6 teams practicing on one field for 2 hours at $130/hour. That means to practice all 20 teams for 3.5 hours each week we need 10.5 hours of field time for a weekly cost of $1365. Figure 40 weeks for a total of $54K+

League fees: They have games each week where you have to pay the refs $10 x 2, plus the league for the field and admin average of $40 per game. So $60 x 20 games = $1200 per week x 40 weeks = $48,000

Equipment costs: Balls = avg $4.50, Nets $50, cones $10 for 10, etc. So if we say $15 in equipment for each kid during the year that is another $3000 conservatively.

Just those areas run out to a little over $100K before we get to advertising, insurance, wages, etc.

It really isn't going to make anyone rich in the short term. A club director could do well if committed and willing to work hard enough to build a club of 50-70 teams but that really is a lot of work that takes them away from the kids so most guys never go that far.

Just a little peak behind the curtain.

When I said "make money" I didn't mean $2000.

I meant, dream about huge piles of cash that you will be making by firing everybody that actually cares about doing something right, then hiring a bunch of career douchebags, and scamming unsuspecting parents into signing up; so that the kids (the reason for the whole thing?) get a raw deal--a coach that doesn't give a rat's ass about them.

I gotta say though, $1500-$7000 per year per kid? That blows my mind. The little local soccer team my friend's kid did was like $60, and that included the uniform and a cheesy little trophy for everyone at the end of the season.

That's a rec program clodfobble. Our rec program was $89 but it was on an indoor a/c field so worth the extra cost to most parents. That's what 90% of the kids who play will do and that's as it should be. Learn the basics, play some games, have some fun, get a trophy and on to the next round.

Club soccer is whole step up. Kids who go through the club system usually end up with college scholarships and some move on to the pros.

Think about the difference between all the little girls who went to gymnastics practice every week and learned to do some flips, vs the girls we'll be watching at the olympics in a couple weeks. They went to a gymnastics club program and spent a lot more time, money, and effort to get there.

Oh okay, I thought you were saying your rec program was the $1500 end of that spectrum, while the club was the $7000.

No, all in -5 ten week sessions of rec - would be under $450 annually.

The range given for the club programs are a range for different programs. We're at the lower end of average because we've been able to keep our field costs down up to this point and because of a couple well timed sponsorship agreements. A cross town club which has been around for abour 10-12 years longer advertises their professional coaching staff resumes with some... padding shall we say? They guarantee that any player who goes all the way through will get a college scholarship or a pro offer or they'll return their tuition. It is a pretty empty promise considering just about anyone who goes through 10-12 years of club training would be getting offers anyway, but that type of thing allows them to charge in that upper range. They probably have 700 kids running through their program each year at an average of $4000 so they have a pretty healthy profit margin in there.

Blimey O'Reilly!
I know parents who are serious about their children's sporting prowess spend money on it, but £2000 a year?! Whew! I thought only the horsing set had to spend above £1000 (and they spend well above!)

Still, money well spent compared to TVs in rooms, McDonalds, designer outfits etc...

The difference between the US and European soccer club organization is that your clubs don't really charge the kids to make money. They train kids in development or elite programs. The kids play and some go on to be great. They either work their way up to the first team or are sold to another team generating a tidy sum for the club to keep on doing business with.

In the US clubs don't own player rights in any way. Parents pay for training, players come and go as they please. If they become great they go play for whoever wants them with no compensation to the club.

Kids' sports cost a lot over here Sundae. But they're also much more a way of life. Soccer is one of the cheap ones.

As is swimming.

But a low-level non-profit swim team will still cost at least $800/child/year and that doesn't include equipment and competition fees. Equipment's not bad compared to other sports (but more than you'd think...) and comp fees are $3/race, maybe 5 races per meet, meets maybe twice a month. And then hotel bills for state comps....

Now if you want to get expensive, try travel hockey (Ice hockey). And Figure skating. Ouch.

Forgot to update after last week.

I was handed two new kids 5 minutes before the game because my team has been short players ever since the session started. Apparently it irritated someone that I was using a "ringer" from another team so we'd have enough to play. Nevermind that the ringer is the 5 year old cousin (with very limited skills)
of one of my players.

Anyway, we played the game. It was pretty uneventful. The teamwork has really broken down because we don't have the same players from week to week but they're still having fun. Except for Lil Lookout. He asked before the game how well he has to do so he can move up to the next age group after this session. I told him that he had to play like he belonged with the older kids and work hard even when he wasn't in the mood.

He scored a first half hattrick for his club team. Then he turned around and scored a hattrick for another club team that was short players right after his game. Then he turned around scored 6 in his rec league game. So 12 points scored in almost 3 hours of soccer in one morning. It looked like he was having fun.

The best moment of the whole morning wasn't a goal, but an awesome passing move he and J pulled off. LL was playing out on the left wing when he received the ball about 10 yards from the goal. He had already scored twice from there so the defenders charged at him and the keeper moved to that side of the box. Lil Lookout started to dribble really slow but wasn't doing much. At the same time J started sprinting down the right side where noone was paying any attention to him. LL stayed calm and let the defenders get right to him before he split the two defenders with a perfectly weighted pass that caught J in stride. J just stuck his foot out and let the ball bounce into the far side of the net before the keeper even realized what was happening. Awesome awesome play.

lookout123;464792 wrote:

The best moment of the whole morning wasn't a goal, but an awesome passing move he and J pulled off... Awesome awesome play.

And those are the moments that make football as good as it is.
Well done LL, and well done you.

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. :rolleyes:

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.

SO sorry Lookout.
Arseholes.

"Follow your bliss." If it means starting your own rec program, launch yourself at that challenge. I'll throw another cliche at you: "If you build it, they will come."

There's going to be a gaping hole in the "market" when that program tanks once parents realize what this idiot has done to that program. If you think you can and want to fulfil that need, good luck to you -I'm sure you can do it, but I'm also sure there will be some nastiness along the way. He doesn't sound like one to admit the error of his ways and mend fences. It will be worth it, though. Good luck with whatever you decide.

It's all good. Our club program is thriving and we already have a rec program in the works. Without a complex we are an outdoor only organization using rented fields. That is what most soccer clubs in the country have so it isn't bad, we were just spoiled. there is already talk of a new indoor complex in the permit phase about ten minutes from the old place, so you just never no.

The new director requires coaches to have parent meetings (as if I didn't talk to my parents anyway) so I'll let them all know that this will be my last session. Most of them know what I'm doing already so word of mouth will do what it does. I expect the fall soccer program at the indoor facility to be pretty sparse. It is every year as parents move their kids outdoor for a taste of something different. The new director hasn't been around long enough to know that we really had to work some magic to keep the fall program going strong... so it should be a lesson for him as all of us that used to keep it going are also moved outside.

whatever, it's just a game.;)

Sounds like a bunch of people playing a number of games. :smack:
Methinks I like yours the bestest.

The season is winding down and the end can't come soon enough. The director decided that one of the glorious changes he was making was to quit throwing money away. Makes sense, right? Except that he views any saturday without games as a $6000 loss. nevermind that the Saturday is smack dab in the middle of a 4 day weekend and we traditionally host a drop in tournament on that day. Pretty much every game in every age group was a forfeit.

Our team had the seven required players so we were good to go. The other team borrowed a couple players and we were off to the races. The coach for the other team was my new BFF, mister "i have a tiny penis so I'll make up for with hypercompetitiveness". The teams were pretty equal for the first 15-20 minutes. Lil Lookout and B were moving and passing well. The defense was solid and the rest existed peacefully unaware of the game around them. We went into the break up by 2 points. Apparently that was completely unacceptable to the other coach because his wife brought his other two sons over. nevermind that they are two and a half years too old for this league and play club ball. Whatever. After five minutes it became pretty clear those two wouldn't pass to anyone but eachother. They're good players and significantly bigger than my average player so they pretty much had the run of the field. By the end of the game LL, B, L, and a few from the other team just stood and watched as the two players dribbled and shot. I asked them why they weren't playing and they all just shrugged and said it was stupid. LL said he wasn't going to get hurt trying to tackle them because the refs weren't calling any fouls. Eh, can't argue with that.

The other team won 8-4 and my kids couldn't have cared less. My BFF walked around with his chest puffed out having avenged his earlier loss in the season. Cool.

Half the coaches in the age group have already announced they aren't coming back. The same happened in the next age group too.

As it stands club practice is 2-3 nights/week in August and early September, but games don't start untiil the end of September. Lil Lookout really doesn't want to go four weeks without a game so it looks like I will be signing him up for another session of indoor even though I won't be coaching it. He played a game with a U10 team this week. He was nervous about it because some of those players are three years older than him but I reminded him that they are the same players he was nervous about when he turned five and they were eight. That settled his nerves a bit and he played pretty well. He scored a couple of real crackers and had one outstanding assist. Looks like it is off to U10 he goes for the next session.

WHAT AN AWESOME THREAD!!!!!

Lookout, one day you should write a book about your experiences here. It would make the New York Times Bestsellers list in an instant.

BTW, it seems to me you should be taking that directors job away from him, but then you would miss the hands on aspects of coaching.

Saturday was a genuinely enjoyable soccer day. Lil Lookout has been frustrated at the idea of only playing one game on Saturday until the outdoor season starts in about two months so I was really hoping that he'd bring some zing back to his game this week.

We played a team coached by one of the hot heads that has been around for awhile. This is a guy who has bitched and moaned about the horribly unfair situation he sees in his team finishing behind mine every session. The guy is an absolute meathead who brutalizes his kid because he isn't as good as Lil Lookout. No seriously, I feel bad for the kid because he is a good player and likes the game... his personality just doesn't suit that of an attacking player. He is outstanding as a holding midfielder, defender, or keeper, but those aren't the glory roles so dad keeps pushing him into something that just isn't meant to be his role. Anyway, ironically as the program has become more and more embroiled in BS, this coach has been buddying up to me because he doesn't really understand what is happening but he has witnessed me come out on top when stupid stuff happened in the past.

Anyway, the game was a blast. The other team has K, L, and S as GOOD players. My two really good players LL and B are better, but when you step over to the rest of the team, the other team has better average skill than mine. I knew we would win IF LL and B both brought their A games and worked hard, but they've both been a bit discouraged lately as the team just doesn't gel well enough to keep a good passing game going. They are both preoccuppied with the Club team and have let their energy slip a bit in rec league. Not this week though.

The teams traded body blows with no score for the first five minutes. It was a pretty hectic pace up and down the field. I held LL and B back as a defensive wall and pushed my two runners without a clue up into forward positions to poke and prod for weaknesses. The other team was passing much better than my kids did so their was a lot of potential to be punished on the counterattack. After ten minutes the game had settled into a decent rhythm of their defense stopping my kids passing the ball up to the wall and their forwards dribbling right through my midfield until LL or B would strip the ball and counter. Our attacks died out because my two forwards weren't skilled enough to receive passes and shoot quickly. I switched the formation to put B as center forward with J (good ideas, but slow reactions) on his left and K(no ideas, no skills but runs around and confuses everyone) on his right. LL was the sole midfielder with orders that if he chose to play lazy and let his team down he would have to play defense the rest of the day. (He's developed the negative tendency to not work much to get the ball back because he's overly confident to outscore anyone when he does have the ball.) I had K and L on defense and S in the goal. That meant a decent back line with a weak keeper and a great offensive midfielder who is hit or miss on defensive duties. Either it would work great or we'd lose really badly. As it happened LL got kicked in the family jewels and it made him mad. From that point on he was possessed. He looked like a man with his hair on fire. I honestly have not seen my kid play that well in at least 6 months.

At halftime he was very discouraged because he had only scored one point. He had knocked the other keeper off his feet twice with blocked shots and had three assists but he still measures his worth in goals scored. I tried to set him straight on that and kept the same formation.

The teams continued to pummel eachother with numerous shots on goal but we were still winning 5-4 with ten minutes left. At that point I became confident that my kids would run away with it. K and L from the other team looked dejected. They had tried everything they knew and just couldn't unlock our defense. LL and B were finally linking up better and LL had regained some confidence in his defensive duties. LL blocked a goal bound shot with his head and then chased it down before dribbling through 5 players, losing the ball twice, getting it back and then crashed a left foot shot in. After actually seeing success after fighting hard the kid was unstoppable. He and B went on an unbroken run in the last five minutes to bring the score to 11-5.

good game based on the scoreline, but great game based on LL actually showing some hunger.

The best moment was when he was surrounded on the left side of goal, trapped at an impossible angle. he pulled off a dragback that was impressive but couldn't open up the angle to shoot. He then pulled it back again (effectively hopping on his left foot while rolling the ball with his right, evading the defenders' reaching feet) then he kicked what looked like a mis-hit. He actually banked it off the wall about 3 feet to the left of the goal and headed in the rebound. Great freaking move. I wish he'd teach me some of his tricks. /proud dad/

Good show, coach. :thumb2:

I love the way you write football, you really bring it alive.
Brilliant.

Excellent point, SG. I've never had much interest in the sport, and didn't understand the fascination people have for it. But this thread has given me a new perspective on the drama unfolding behind the scenes, and on the field.

It also demonstrates the difficulty, and people skills as well as athletic skills, involved in being a competent coach. It's evident that our tutor, Lookout, is a superb coach. :thumb:

:blush: Thanks guys. Off to the second to last game now. We shall see how it goes.

Week 9 has come and gone. When I look at the team sheets for the team we are to play, trying to decide on my starting structure I can only chuckle as I think back to the BS meeting where I was told over and over that my team was too strong and had to be taken down a notch. I lost 3 of my strongest players and then wasn't allowed any imput on their replacements. If a player looked like they could walk and chew gum at the same time they were judged to be too strong for my team and replaced with a... um... well... less skilled candidate. Please don't misunderstand and think that I don't like the kids. I do, very much so. Even the one I have a hard time not strangling and then using his body to beat his parents over the head with... (how do you do that strikeout thing again?) OK, so they're all good kids and we're there to have fun. But when the three players I was given so that I would have enough to field a team were all rejected, I mean selected from other teams because of listening/behavior issues, it does make it a little difficult to get any unit cohesion.

Anyway, I went in to Saturday's game expecting a loss. OK, truthfully I expected to get blown clean out of the water. We were facing another team that magically was able to add more players who requested the coach after the season started. Those players are pretty good, but not spectacular. Except when you realize that because he was a new coach I suggested we put Ba, B, and K on his team to help him get started. Those three are some of our top notch REALLY outstanding players from the club team. The theory was that they'd be his core of stability while he brought his new team together. But when you add those three to a team of pretty good players you now have a juggernaut. Ba is a force to reckon with. He and LL are friends and teammates for the club team but they are both very strong alpha types. Ba is stronger defensively and LL is stronger creatively so when they work together it's great but when they butt heads... well, you know. Add to that B from my team who has really come on as a player as I've been giving him private coaching for the last 8 months preparing him for the club team has suddenly discovered a rockstar aspect to his personality. He has decided passing is for lesser mortals. All things considered I was not betting on our team to win.

The other coach predictably put Ba, B, and K as a three man attack and put strong defenders behind them. What I didn't expect is that he never subbed those three out. He merely rotated the rest of the team through the defensive positions for the whole game. I put my kids on the field with a weak frontline, strong midfield, ok defense, and decent goalie. LL wasn't feeling well so I started with him on the bench. The other team had us pinned back by three points in the opening 5 minutes. Ba was just dribbling circles around my kids. My keeper was upset but I reassured him that he couldn't have stopped those goals unless he suddenly grew, so he should just relax and have fun. I put LL in his midfield anchor role with B and J up front. I was pleased to see that LL had brought his can do attitude and was willing to work for things. He'd fight and recover the ball then pass up to B only for B to refuse to pass back out and lose possession again. Then B quit running back to get the ball, so I benched him. Now I had LL on the field as a top drawer player with J as a good worker but not much of a force going forward. K and L, my girls hadn't seen eachother in two weeks and really wanted to chill on the bench and catch up on whatever it is seven year old girls talk about. So I had C in the midfield (he falls every third step) and S next to him. Fortunately S can make it about eight steps before falling over, but he inevitably knocks one of his teammates over when he falls. LL and J managed to tie the game up before halftime through pure hard work and desire.

I spoke to B and asked if he wanted to be part of the team or if I should just send him out there and let the rest of the team hang out on the bench. He said he understood so I put him back out there. He and LL were upfront with J and K behind them and S and S in defense with C in the goal. LL and B were passing and moving well and B scored a nice shot from the outside corner. Then LL recovered the ball inside the center circle while B was screaming for the ball in front of the goal. LL tried to pass it to him, but couldn't get an open lane as B was staying on the left side of the box. LL started to the left, pulled a dummy move, and cut back to the right which gave him a half second to do something. He still didn't have an angle on B and he had two players charging him so he shot. From inside the center circle, just short of half field. And he hit it right in the top right corner. He just smiled and ran back to high five his teammates when B ran up and started screaming at him for not passing. I was shocked. B was red-faced, spittle flying, screaming just inches from LL's face. LL was just startled and mortified. Then B shoved him. Then LL punched him in the face. Then LL stands over him and yells, "Are you fucking stupid?!?" :eek: At that point B and LL both get blue carded which means I have to take them off the field for two minutes each and the team has to play short. B's dad, who is a friend of mine, was on the bench by the time I got them off the field and led B away. The only thing I heard was him asking "are you hurt? no? Then LL should have hit you harder, you deserved it."

LL sat on the bench without argument and when the game got going again quietly asked, "am I grounded?" :right: I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or yell so I just asked him which infraction was worthy of grounding - punching his teammate or dropping the F bomb. I told him we'd deal with that afterwards and that he could go back in the game after his penalty time ran out. He went back in and played his heart out scoring a couple more times and making a beautiful assist from the left when he made a run down the line, shielding the ball from the defender the whole way. When he was about ten feet from the goal at full speed he stepped up on the ball with his right foot while spinning his body so he did a 360, coming out of his twist now on the inside and about three steps away from the defender. The goalie still had the angle covered so rather than wasting the shot LL passed across the goal mouth to J who tapped it in.

We lost the game by four points and finished without B - parental vicegrips, L - shot blocked with her nose, K - shot blocked with her stomach, and S - split lip on ground when he fell over from a standing position during a water break.

With that we have fallen solidly into second position with a 7-2 record.

B's parents were frustrated with me afterwards when we were all standing around. They ordered B apologize to LL, which he did ith a typical 7 year old's snear. I asked if LL had something to say and he said "no". I reminded him what had happened and he responded with all the sincerety this seven year old could manage, "I'll get in more trouble if I lie so I won't apologize. I'm not sorry I hit B and if he screams and pushes me like that I'll do it again." I honestly couldn't argue with that logic so I told him fair enough and we all dispersed. I, of course, dealt with the hitting and swearing issues at home, but I really couldn't fault him for refusing to give a false apology. I spoke to B's parents later about it so hopefully the air is clear on the adult side. The kids will just have to figure it out on their own.

One more game then this season and my life as a rec league coach at the complex will come to a close.

holy crap! pass the pepto!

Dude, you should get a raise. Or hazard pay at least.

Ah the good ole days. You eloquence far surpasses my ability to recreate the memories I have of my sons and the experiences we had during their soccer playing days, both recreational and travel league.
Thanks for that L123. The diary of the memories you post here will last a lifetime and LL will love reading this and reminiscing about them when he gets older.

I just found out that LL and B spent the day at the water park together so my guess is the feud is over. At least until the next time.

What happens between the lines.....

Kinda like Vegas I guess. :)

Damn, this thread would make a great book.
Required reading for new coaches. :thumb:

I'm not so sure about that. It would be an quick way to make sure we never had any veteran coaches. A new coach would take a quick read and quit the next day.;) but thanks.

Maybe you should write a book showing how to organize programs to minimize nonsense. #1 Parents banned from all games and practices. ;)

If I did it would go something like this:

1) Organize teams so that they have about the same overall skill level BUT do not separate kids from their friends simply to make it more fair by some adult's calculations.

2) Teach the basics in the first week through demonstration and drills. After that week only use drills as a warm up for the real practice, don't waste valuable time telling kids repeatedly to pass with the inside of the foot. Practice mental awareness and thinking on your feet. Kids will use the basics while doing it and be more motivated to practice on their own when they can compare their skills to their peers in friendly competition.

3) Games are for fun, but don't pretend they don't mean anything. I promise you that even if you don't keep score, every kid on the field knows the score. Play to win. Don't ever tell kids not to play hard or not score. Make it harder for them by giving them different challenges if they are exceptional players but don't ever ever tell them not to play hard.

4) First adult who says "it's not fair" gets kicked in the crotch by every player on both teams, then the coaches, then the refs. Life isn't fair. Each team starts every week with zero points. Anything can happen during a game so try hard and accept that you don't win them all. Sports are a good training ground for life skills. Learn to deal with "unfair" obstacles.

5) (a) First parent who pulls a book out of their bag and starts reading it at practice is named the new assistant coach. Show your kids you care about what they are doing. Yes you are busy. Yes it is nice to take a break from parenting. But just take an hour out of life every week to watch the kid interact with his/her peers without being the one to offer corrective input. You might just learn what a great job you're doing parenting. or not.

(b) Every parent of a young soccer player has to play at least one season on an adult rec league team. This will go a long way to solving the problem of parents not understanding what they see and screaming asinine instructions to the kids at games. If they spent an hour running up and down a field getting pushed, shoved, and kicked they might come up with something more intelligent to yell at the kids than "RUN AFTER THE BALL!" Other lessons will include: not everyone is born to be a forward, defenders are just as important as everyone else, and that big kid who knocked your son down is not necessarily a psychopathic axemurderer maliciously hunting your firstborn.

6) Sportsmanship. So that we can make sure it is being instilled at home coaches will watch and listen as the kids shake hands after the game. Any child who refuses to shake hands, spits on his hand, or insults the other players in the line has to go get his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, babysitters, and anyone else who came to watch them. The child will be placed in the center circle, given a big slushy and a bag of skittles to enjoy while they watch their family run, not walk, five complete laps around the field. Encourage the child to point and laugh. After the family is done running make sure the child says, "bad job" or "you suck". I promise that child will never exhibit poor sportsmanship again.

That should be a good starting framework.

Wow! Now I want to learn how to play soccer.

Edit: I was never in to sports growing up, and still am not. But if I had lookout as a coach at the right age I think I'd have a whole different attitude now.

go do it. Today. you're never too old to start.

I dare ya You should be able to find indoor and outdoor rec leagues near where you live.

Bruce, you can start here.

All my physical activity time is taken up by biking, hiking and martial arts (6 classes per week).

The point of my post was that you had to be the coach. Maybe we can start a Cellar virtual soccer team.

I did like this, from your first link:

We have a complete BAR serving a wide variety of alcohols and beers AND a SNACK BAR complete with hot food at FAMILY FRIENDLY PRICES!

LOL. I noticed that. We have an indoor facility here that is well known for their bar. That, and the very real possibility of getting shanked in the parking lot if you beat the wrong team. I don't play there.

that's the other facility. i still frequent that one.

lookout123;470981 wrote:

(b) Every parent of a young soccer player has to play at least one season on an adult rec league team.

My daughter played soccer for the first time this spring. Soccer wasn't an option as a sport to go out for when I was in school, so I knew absolutely nothing about it. One of my gripes about the program was that I had to go check out a few books to teach myself basic soccer, and then I found out that the rules are different for different ages/leagues etc. so I had no idea what the kids were supposed to be doing, or what was allowed when they were playing.

SO,

Might I suggest that the league present each parent with a small booklet of the basics appropriate for their child's level of play. Or at the very least post the rules of the game on the website (I assume they have) so that those of us who DO pay attention, can help teach their own kids on their own time out of practice.

I find it frustrating that I really didn't know a whole lot more about soccer than I did before she ever played.

In our magical league only two things will be different than adult soccer.

1) No offside rule until U12 age group.

2) Adults play on large fields with 11 to a side. Kids play on smaller fields. U6/8/10 play with 6 and a keeper. U12/14 with 8 and a keeper. Above 14 and still playing? Welcome to the adult world.

lookout123;470984 wrote:

Bruce, you can start here.

Zero desire to participate in any group activities. My dossier says, "Does NOT play well with others".:headshake

sweet, you're perfect for a keeper then. they're all a little off in the head but they cover it up by claiming they're just loners.

lol @ lookout - I was thinkin the same thing.

There's no coverup, the two go together. :p

Excellent, Bruce is the starting keeper for Cellar F.C.

So we have a keeper, who else wants to play. I think we'll go with the classic 4-4-2 lineup.
[CENTER] Bruce/Keeper

Defender 1-------Def 2-----Def 3----------Defender 4

R Mid -------Center Mid ---- Center Mid ------- L Mid


Forward -----------------Forward[/CENTER]
Call your positions people, let's go.

I can move fast, but I don't always pay attention to what's going on in the game (who's pitching? which goal is ours? etc.). I've been improving my accuracy, coordination and balance. I wish to play barefoot.

What position do you recommend?

Quick but sometimes drift off and miss details of the game? You're a forward. Watch your toes. Are you left or right footed?

I'll take def2. I've got a strong right foot and at one time had good anticipation for play development. And I'm kinda mean... inside the white lines.

Good. It's hard to find a good centerback. Most are too frightened to go into the challenges hard. Lots of jumping required. If you use your foil, make sure to hide it with your body so the linesman doesn't see.

[CENTER]
Bruce/Keeper
Defender 1-------Griff/CD-----Def 3----------Defender 4

R Mid -------Center Mid ---- Center Mid ------- L Mid


HLJ/FWD -----------------Forward[/CENTER]

Can't run, won't run, no way no how. But not afraid to get hit by the ball. I'll be a backup keeper.

lookout123;471186 wrote:

Quick but sometimes drift off and miss details of the game? You're a forward. Watch your toes. Are you left or right footed?

I'm left-handed and right-eyed, so I suppose I'm right-footed.

You can have the job, I hear the coach is a tyrant. ;)

left handed and right eyed but does martial arts so can probably kick with both feet... I'll keep you on the right and teach you to cut in if needed. enjoy your position. seriously watch out for cleats if you insist on being barefoot.

Lookout, I really have to agree that you should publish this as a book. I have a hard time reading long posts on a screen (rather than print) but I was glued. You are a very good writer, captivating, coherent, and you make the subject fascinating and impart the excitement of the game as well as the moronic behavior of some of the parents/adults.

Just copy and paste what you;ve already posted and send it to a few publishers.

Cellar F.C. has been launched. Visit now



Thanks Foot. Writing a book is something I've always dreamed about but I wouldn't know where to start. Writing a post is one thing but stretching that out to a full length book and keeping it interesting? My mother has written a few over the years with exactly zero luck in getting published outside a magazine here and there. Maybe my skepticism comes from watching her disappointment.

and BTW, what position do you want?

I'll take one of the remaining defender positions. I can read the play, take a collision, get the ball off my opponent cleanly ... then freeze and wonder what the hell I should do with the ball now that I've got it. I'm not good at kicking long nor at running the ball forward. I'll need someone with a good boot to pass to.

A little late here with the tenth and final week's report.

This was the last week of the session, of my coaching, and of lil lookout playing U8 ball so I was hoping to go out on a high. We were playing our arch rivals. The coach who in past has given such grief over the makeup of my team, the one who complained about unfair advantage that I practiced with some of the boys after school, the one who has been coming to me trying to figure out why things are changing. In all honesty I couldn't have created a schedule to finish the season any better. We were tied for first with another team and going up against a team who gives us a good run for our money every time we play.

We were missing B, my little bulldog runner, which is a blessing in disguise sometimes. He has incredible natural talent and I've worked with him a lot, but he's reached the stage where he believes he's a one man team so it's been a bit difficult with him lately.

LL started in the goal, with a strong defense, and decent midfield, and a weak forward line. The other team as always came out hard and fast with their two skilled players really running my kids in circles. They were up by two points from outside high shots pretty quickly. LL came out of goal and went in as forward, K replaced him. It was evident right away that LL wanted to make the most of his last game. he fought for open balls more than I've seen in quite awhile. He'd get the ball and pass over to J only to see J dribble up the line into a dead end. Then LL and L would work to get the ball back and the same thing would happen. Lots of good efforts but no finish looked to be the story of the day. We were down 4-0 just before the half when LL had the ball in open space about 35 feet from the goal and just to the left. He stood there waiting for someone on our team to move enough so he could pass in, but it just wasn't happening. So the little smart ass started juggling the ball. After about the fourth tapup he hauled off and crushed it. It sailed straight into the top right corner just before the whistle sounded. Show off.

So we started the second half down 4-1. J, J, and K each were subbing in and out about every two minutes because they were hot, or tired, or had to pee, or someother ridiculous thing so the rest of the team played the whole second half without subs. LL and L combined really well playing back and forth the full length of the field ending up with LL in the box. He took an excellent shot, but the keeper made an even better diving save. A few minutes later they combined again but LL faked a shot to get the keeper moving before burying the ball in the opposite corner. 4-2. The next goal S and S were running around and bumping into eachother and somehow one of them knocked the ball in the goal without even knowing it. They came back to the line asking who had kicked it. 4-3. LL was getting tired so he played in defense for awhile. J and J were back up front and L played the ball up to J for a sweet outside right shot, 4-4.

We're tied up with a little more than five minutes left. J is tired and doesn't want to go back in. K is in the same boat. Then the other J takes an elbow to the nose and I have to talk K into going back in to play defense. LL would get the ball and move up the field but when he'd look for someone to pass to he'd see the rest of his team hanging out by our own goal. He was on his own and I think he relished the chance to be the star. He made a beautiful run up the left side and just before he got to the endline, just left of the goal he stepped up over the ball causing it to hit his heel and pop in the air. He never took his eye off it and as the defender was caught outside of him now he spun around to volley it while it was still in the air - GOAL! He was pretty proud of that one. Now we're winning 5-4 with 3 minutes left. The other team takes their kick but LL ran across the center line and stole it before their player even got their touch. He dribbled straight through the midfield, cut right around the defenders and popped it in from the outside right. Now we're up 6-4 with about 2.5 minutes left. The other team comes back down the field with some nice passing and pulls one back. 6-5 with one minute left. L took our kick and passed straight out to LL who ran up the right side. He had two players in front and another coming on his left so he played it off the wall and ran around the defenders to receive his own pass. The next thirty seconds was pure joy for me. LL was on his own with 4 defenders and a keeper to beat. He'd lose the ball then get it back, he'd shield the ball then spin around only to be blocked and try to spin the other way. All those hours of us playing one on one really paid off in that 30 seconds. When he finally emerged three of their players were on the ground and the other was a step behind LL. He was at a tight angle with the keeper in front of him and the defender nipping at his heals when he chipped the ball up and over the keeper to land neatly in the goal behind him. He didn't even celebrate, he just jogged back to the bench and asked if he could have a drink. It was such a fun display to watch that even the other coach was cheering and made a point of telling LL he deserved to get that goal. A great game and a great way to finish things off.

The final whistle went and the kids all gathered for our traditional cheer for the other team. Even though we won the game we finished in second place due to goal difference. You can't finish a season much closer than that. We went to the snack bar where I called them each up for trophies and awards and then it was back to my house for an end of season pool party.

It has been a very mixed season. I couldn't have predicted the off field drama if I'd tried, but on field we had fun and I think the kids learned and progressed quite a bit this season. This week was pretty weird for me. I can't remember the last time I didn't have a team to coach during the week. I miss it already but my days as a rec league coach are over. [SIZE="1"]Unless 2.0 decides to play in another year or so, then I guess I'll have to coach an outdoor rec program.[/SIZE] ;)

Maybe you can just re-use that text for the Cellar F.C. game next week.