Zander's Inside Voice

As I eagerly await my soccer roster, I find myself in a strange yet familiar place.

My son’s team has me as an assistant coach and someone else listed as an I don’t even know what. I told the coordinator I was willing to be the head coach for his team, but I would need assistance when the games overlapped, as they often did. I’m waiting to hear back from her.

Then I noticed that there are many people coaching two teams. Why can’t more people volunteer? Why are so many content to sit back and not step up for their own child? I actually had 13 on my team last season and I did not have an assistant, a parent who helped organize snack, or even someone to stand with me on the sideline for moral support. But whatever. Without the volunteers, these parents wouldn’t have a league to sign their child up for.

One thing I was really nervous about was that parents would not like the way I coached. I decided that if they felt that way, I would be more than willing to hand over the reigns and they could be the coach instead. It turns out that was a silly thing to worry about. I had great parents who were supportive the whole time, other than twice when no one volunteered to bring a snack. The kids complained. I told them to tell their parents they wanted to bring snack to an upcoming game because I wasn’t going to bring it more than once. If I coach, I should not even have to worry about bringing a snack even one time. There’s only 8 games and at least 10 other families who can bring the snack.

But I’m starting to whine. I’m excited to coach my original team and I’m not sure if I’m excited about this second team. His team didn’t even win one game last season. It was like a bunch of kids who never played together got put on one team and all the other teams had been playing together since kindergarten. I hope I can do better with his team. The other coach didn’t really seem to understand the game well. My son used to give me a hard time because my players didn’t play like he was being coached to play. He said his coach graduated from a “coach school” and maybe I should try to go to a coach school. Hahaha, I told him “I used to play, I understand the game, and I can help kids understand the game without adding a bunch of weird stuff like kicking the ball out of bounds instead of getting it away from your goal and up the field to your offense.” It was so weird how his team was coached and I never said anything out loud because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

But I think I can do better than she did. Look like I will get my chance!!