I am a soccer coach. It’s still weird to hear myself say that. Mainly, because I never played a second of soccer in my life. Instead, my soccer experience began in a “bag chair” from Walmart, sitting on the sidelines back in 2006 watching my 4 year old twins run back and forth, between two tiny goals, chasing a soccer ball. Yep, that’s where all this started.
From that moment on soccer has been a huge part my family life. I guess you could say for the past 11 years I’ve been a “soccer mom”, although I really don’t like the stereotype in which people use the term. Soccer moms are usually referred to as women who drive mini vans full of kids, headed to soccer practice amongst all the other places they have to go, passing out McDonalds as they cruise the drive through for supper. Not saying that’s never been me because it so has, but I just call that a busy mom. My soccer mom hat has been just one of many I wore through the years.
Soccer mom in my world has come to mean so much more. My soccer mom duties have included finding training for my son so he could advance in his skills, finding teams/clubs for him to play in that we could afford and that would challenge him, finding camps for him to go to that would bridge him into our next step which is getting colleges to notice him and so very much more. My soccer mom duties led me into what I’ve been doing for three years now and that’s coaching school soccer.
Three years ago when my son was about to enter 7th grade I knew he’d be eligible to play school level soccer. The only problem was our feeder school pattern only had one boys soccer team which was varsity. At the time my sons skill level in soccer was pretty advanced for his age, but his size was not. He was pretty small entering the 7th grade and was not ready for varsity level soccer in the schools. At the time I also knew about 6 or 7 other boys who had played soccer through the years with my son and needed a team to play on. So some other parents and I got together and pitched the idea of a JV soccer team, and considering I was the only school board employee out of the group we suggested I be the coach. If that made you chuckle reading this then you can only imagine the response we initially got with our idea…let’s just say it was not one of my favorite memories. Well anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t take no for an answer very well on something I am passionate about or that my kids are passionate about. I am a pretty determined soul and will fight for what I want if it’s something I truly believe in. This was one of those times. It was a long process and very much a struggle, but somehow we managed to begin a middle school (7th and 8th grade) co-ed soccer team and yes I was the coach.
Thank goodness we had an assistant coach lined up to help me who really knew how to coach soccer. If not I would’ve been in big, fat trouble. Coaching a school team is so much more than practice and games though. I don’t know that parents really, truly understand all the jobs coaches have. One day I’ll have to write a blog of the day in the life of a school coach. It’s one of the most stressful, challenging, rewarding jobs I’ve had in my 26 years of being an educator. All parents and athletes see is practice and games. Well I’m here to tell you that is only a small percentage of the job of a coach. These jobs begin long before the season starts and even before tryouts for the team. A three month season for players and parents usually means a six to seven month season for the coach. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart…and there are several times where I’ve questioned my heart health…LOL!
My first season surprised people, turned heads of administrators in a good way and made believers out of all those who had doubted me and the other parents who made it happen. Our team had about 7 kids out of 18 who had ever played soccer. We won 3 games, lost 5 and tied 2 that season. We improved greatly from our first game to our last. We instilled the love of soccer into a group of kids in which some had never played an organized team sport in their life. The majority of those kids are still playing soccer today…all on varsity teams. That first team had 19 kids tryout, we took them all, and one quit for baseball. The next season we had 27 tryout and we took 22 which is the most we are allowed to take. We won 5, lost 4 and tied 2 that second season. This year I moved up to coach girls varsity and someone else took over my middle school team. In a way it will always be “my” team because I, along with a few others, know exactly what it took for that team to exist.
I say all this to say…this soccer mom turned coach is tired & stressed, but would do it all over again to experience what I’ve gotten to the past three years!
Below are my three teams I’ve had the privilege to coach and currently have the privilege to coach…none of it would be possible without my amazing assistant coaches who know the game…Coach Mike and Coach Marcy!
Words of Heart 