Zander's Inside Voice

Today is our first soccer practice. Naturally it’s cold after being comfortable and even hot the past two weeks or so. It’s so annoying. Our first game on Saturday is due to be a rainy one if the weather forecast holds up. How annoying! I don’t need it to be hot or anything, just a little warmer than it currently is and not rainy. I find that the players don’t enjoy playing in the rain at this age. It’s cold and wet and the last game that was like this, we lost badly. The kids just didn’t want to be there.

I’m really excited about my team. I am up to 14 kids total. I had 13 last season and the season before that. 14 is a little more challenging because we only play 9 on the field at this level. That means I will have 5 subs and they will all whine to get back out on the field. The good part is that I have 8 from my last team, most of which have good attitudes and enjoying playing and didn’t whine too much when I pulled them out. I think that’s the absolute worst part of all of this…dealing with that whining. Any whining, about anything gets on my nerves!

I’ve had a practice plan ready for awhile now, where I even pre-assigned partners. But since then I have learned that 4 of my returning players won’t be at practice today. That’s just annoying! Now I will assign partners randomly and scattered, instead of doing it precisely like I have planned. I had an entire speech ready too, but with so many missing the speech, I will modify it to main points only. Basically they are one season from playing at a higher level and I don’t want any of them to act like they did the past two season. There was some improvement, but I don’t want to see any of that crap this season.

I just want to have a great season, with some really good kids!