Kid's sports - A New Hope
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HC - Head Coach
G - Team Manager, admin duties
Me - Assistant Coach
----------

Lil Lookout
Ba
Br
K
Da
Di
J
S (will play for A and B teams)
Bi (will play for A and B teams)

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

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

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

He called you Lookout?

/sniveling/ he called you Lookout?/5th grader/


:COBL:

City of Blinding Lights?

WTF is this :COBL: crap everyone keeps posting? Is that like a secret love sign between you two? :eyebrow:

LOL. No secret code. It was just me idiotically mistyping something in my momentary desire to mock Flint.

Ohhhhh

:::BCOL::: then.

but COBOL is a code...

And I couldn't help noticing one of your players is bi. Congrats to them for being so comfortable so early.

Yeah he's even listed as playing for both teams.

lol. strangely enough it is a distinct possibility for little Bi.

OK, we have two weeks until the first league game and three weeks until the first tournament which happens to be in Flagstaff. Why is the location important? Because in addition to the difficulty of getting a bunch of seven year olds to operate as a team, we also need to get them fit enough to play 4-7 games at an elevation of 8,000+ feet. Teams from all over the southwest will be there.

We have been practicing for 3.5 hours per week all month with extra fitness and skill sessions on the weekends. Last Saturday we pulled the kids together with another team and played a scrimmage. While all the pieces are there and we have a very talented group I am somewhat skeptical about their chances of putting together a winning record. HC, good guy that he is, is only looking at the individual skill levels. I, being a bit more realistic, am looking at team chemistry. Da will not pass. More to the point, his dad doesn't WANT him to pass and tells him to only play in the center forward role, and oh yeah- practice is for lesser mortals. HC is so impressed with Da's ability to score he turns a blind eye to it and believes he can coach it out of him. I am of the hardened belief that parental attitude and praise are far more important than coach's directions.

Example: If a kid scores one goal and gets two assists but the parent only praises the goal, what does the kid hear? Score more goals, be more selfish. AND THAT DEFINITELY AFFECTS THEIR ONFIELD DECISIONS.

Br and Ba both suffer from the same non passing affliction but I feel we can deal with that because the parents are more team oriented.
I approach the problem quite openly with the kids - you don't pass, you don't play any further forward than defense. your only job will be to win the ball back and pass it forward until you are willing to use your teammates further up the field. I will willingly sacrifice points and lose games by fielding weaker lineups to hammer that point home.

That means that when I'm coaching the team line up is:


K is very tentative right now, acting afraid of the bigger players
S is playing very slow

Ideally, K the left footer will pick up his game and slot in as LFD and LL will move over to his stronger right side. If Da will start passing he'll be our strongest center forward and we can reshuffle. That would look like:
Di/Keeper
Ba/RB ----- J/LB

Br/CM

LL/RFD ---- Da/CFD ---- K/LFD

Ba and J together are an unbeatable defensive wall. Br is a fast little bulldog. LL and K switch the ball crossfield with no effort and they each have excellent outside shooting and Da is a prototypical tall CFWD who can muscle his way through the opposition. That is the starting lineup I want to see for when we have to be the strongest. For that to work, Da and Br have to seriously improve their teamwork with those around them. Ba has to seriously improve his positioning and K has to get over his sudden fear of larger players.

S will be able to slot in on defense for tournaments. Bi can move into any of the roles except keeper and hold his own, even if he isn't the best player in any of those roles. I love that kid as he has a great attitude and good workrate - he makes a perfect utility player. Ba is by far our best goalie, but he is far superior defender to Di so I hope to work on Di's keeping skills until he grows into his field player abilities.

Got a call from Mrs L. I had a very early appointment this morning so was gone before kids were up. Apparently Lil Lookout found his kit bag (ball bag, uniforms...) for the coming season. I got it from HC and just hadn't given it to LL yet. No big deal I thought.

Then Mrs L tells me he's just sitting in his room on the verge of tears. She had to pry it out of him but apparently he was crushed when his jerseys weren't in there. He was certain they weren't giving him jerseys because of some error he'd made in the last scrimmage. He had himself convinced he wasn't getting the #9 jersey. He has placed some SERIOUS significance on that jersey being the right one for him. They offered him 10,11, and 14 which are traditionally the lusted for striker numbers. He insisted that he wants number 9. That's traditionally a winger or withdrawn striker shirt so maybe he sees himself changing his role in the team - i don't know.

I do know it took me some time to convince him that the coach didn't decide he wasn't good enough for the number nine.

So, how do you all feel about psychiatric drugs for 7 year olds?;)

Tell him to rub some dirt on it. ;)

I'd vote for less TV (as in a nature movie on friday night if all other things permit and less sugar, no food coloring or artificial anything, certainly never any highfructose cornsyrup, and absolutley rub some dirt on it.

Then play him that beatles song revolution #9.

Leave off the drugs until he's older and he can have organic mushrooms. Remember "Set and setting" link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting

I remember when they were 7.... the craving for psychiatric drugs was at times almost overpowering.... But I managed to resist the urges, you can too.

Oh. You mean.. well. Read this first.

We are preparing for the big tournament a week from saturday. We have one practice of normal technique, systems, and drills and two scrimmages each week.

Another club in the area had some problems and their team split up. They had one player that we'd watched and been impressed with and his parents brought him to our practices this week to try out. His technique is excellent but Monday left me unimpressed with his work ethic and a hint of petulance. HC saw the kid's footwork and nothing else. HC was almost jumping up and down with joy at having this kid.

Tuesday night brought a quick end to that thought. We scrimmaged another team in our age group and absolutely dismantled them. Lil Lookout, Bi, and Ba had some excellent passing movement down. P (the new kid) was excellent with the ball but wasn't passing at all. After that scrimmage we turned around and scrimmaged a team from an age group up. They're bigger, stronger, and much more physical but our kids are actually more skilled. Again our kids were doing well, but now they started getting upset when they'd call for the ball and P would choose to dribble into a crowd instead of passing. This happened repeatedly and we tried coaching P on the issue but he just rolled his eyes and went back to doing his thing.

On one play Bi had the ball under pressure and passed out to LL who one touched it about 20 feet into P. At that point P had about 5 feet of space and then hard pressure. He had Ba open on his right, LL WIDE open on his left but decided to bulldoze his way through instead. He inevitably lost the ball at which point LL and Ba jumped on his case again about passing. Apparently he didn't like the criticism because he coldcocked Lil Lookout. He just caught him right on the jaw and dropped him. At that point Ba, Da, Bi, and Br jumped on top of him and started punching. We pulled them off and made the whole team run laps for a bit while discussing the issue with P's dad. Apparently, that type of thing has happened before so we have passed on the opportunity to have P play with us. Whatever.

Lil Lookout has received a very valuable lesson: If you are going to jump someone's shit, you'd better be fully prepared for the consequences. He didn't deserve the punch, but it won't do him any harm to be taken down a notch either. (I didn't point out, but did note that the whole team was prepared to jump in and defend one of their own. I'll count that as a positive for teambuilding)

That the team has come together and was willing to defend one of their own is a great thing! Your team sounds as if its gelling very well.

Either that or they're just violent thugs in training. Either way, it should be fun.

"Lookout's Corporate Team Building Seminars" Space is limited so sign up now!

I can totally see it: Get them all out in the woods doing the usual ghey team building shit then out of the blue have some guy from middle management start a dogpile on the guy who refuses to play reindeer games with the rest of the group.

That would be my next million.

ha ha, I hope they beat that bitch down!

Did you, like, hurry to pull your guys off?

This could have been a scene in an old Disney flick....

Lil Lookout's off to the races. This was his second goal in our last game.

Uh oh, I've screwed up the attachment again. I'll try to fix that later, but first a quick update on the team.

We successfully navigated our first tournament (and first game as a team) this past weekend. The tournament was in Flagstaff so a lot of preparation went into this one. Normal league play doesn't start until next weekend so we didn't have the opportunity to run the kids out and see how they perform against real opposition until the first game of the tourney. The state association divides teams by birth year and than subdivides by tiers - tier 1 being the highest skill level for a team to be. We are an 01 tier 2 team. We actually have three players that could be 2002 players if there was a competitive division for that younger age.

Anyway, we got to the tournament checkin in Flag to find out that more than half of the clubs who came last year opted out this year. Only one other club brought a team in our age group so we were all lumped into the U10 age bracket which means our 6 and 7 year olds would be playing against kids up to 3 years older than they are. Eh, trial by fire works I guess.

Our first game was Saturday morning and it happened to be against the only other 01 team in the tournament. We lined our kids up in a pretty balanced manner that looked like

We had to change things up when Lil Lookout had a 1 minute 18 second hattrick thanks to some nice passing and a little fancy footwork. By the ten minute mark we had our kids restricted to 1) No shots on goal until 6 complete passes, 2) no shots inside the 18 yard box. We put Lil Lookout in the goal for the second half and "accidentally" forgot to put enough players on the field in the second half. We still won 15-0. It was uncomfortably embarrassing. The other coach was very nice about it and not upset at all. The other kids were genuinely thrilled that our supporters invited them to run through the "honor tunnel" (yes, very cheesy but the parents like it and the kids love it) after the game then they hung out with us for another hour or so. I honestly can't count the nice passes and all the goalscorers. I know that Lil Lookout had 8 goals and 4 assists in the first half though.

Our next game was that afternoon against a 2000, Tier 1 team. Several of these kids came up to my chin and they were freaking good. End of story. They beat our 2000 team 5-0 earlier in the day so I was hoping for a draw. We put biggest, strongest kids in defense and they were still smaller than the smallest player on the other team. That team kicked the crap out of our kids. I got into it with the other coach after the second time Lil Lookout got kicked in the face by the same kid. Our keeper and defensive line were fantastic under pressure. LL and Br linked up to send us into the final 15 minutes winning 2-0. Then it all fell apart. Br got kicked in the throat and went down in a heap. Immediately after that Ba got tackled from behind and went down holding a knee. I've got two kids down hurt and the ref didn't blow the whistle so the other team attacked and scored. We settled the kids and picked up the pieces but the difference in priorities and squad depth became an issue. We played all of our kids nearly equal minutes because we feel it is the right thing to do. The other team chose to bench their weaker players for the last ten minutes and really took advantage of the S/D combo we had in defense out of necessity. They aren't a great combo but we didn't have a choice. That lineup conceded 2 more points in the last 5 minutes. We lost that game 3-2.

Our third game was Sunday against a 2000, tier 2 team. I felt confident about this game because all we had to do was score one and keep a clean sheet to advance to the finals because of the point differential from the first game. Again we were outsized (the picture above is from this game) but confident. Lil Lookout put us up 2-0 before the half on two breakaway plays. Unfortunately he got sloppy and started getting caught offside or it could have been 4 or 5-0. Eh, lessons learned. We got to the final five minutes holding them 2-0 when the referee handed them a gift. The other team had a throw-in right by our box. Da had his back turned looking to make sure everyone was marked when the player threw the ball in - directly at Da's outstretched arm. 99 out of 100 referees would have declared that a ball-to-hand event and waived play on, but this genius called it a handball. Inside the 18 yard box. With a minute and a half left. PENALTY KICK! Our keeper managed to get a glove on the ball but the ball landed neatly in the back of the net. We're still winning 2-1 but because we didn't hold them scoreless we have to beat them by three points to advance to the finals. We threw everything at them and Lil Lookout blasted another one in from outside, but the other team hit us on the break while we had kids pushed forward for another so the game finished 3-2 in our favor but we crashed out of the tournament.

The kids were pretty upset and there were a lot of tears, but they realized pretty quickly that they came within two minutes of making it to the finals of a tournament playing teams a lot older and a lot bigger than they are so they had nothing to be ashamed of. All in all, they did great.

LL needs to work on beating the offside trap and staying on his feet under harsh tackles.
Br needs to work on his attitude.
K needs to work on staying in the game rather than drifting in and out.
Da needs to work on his passing.
Ba needs the same.
Bi needs to be more assertive.
J,Di,S, and T need to work on their ball handling and positioning.

Much more to learn during this very long season. We have at least 6 major tournaments plus normal league play over the next 8 months. Hopefully we'll be playing kids in our own age group from here on out.

Sounds like overall it was very a successful tourney. This was the first for many of your players too - right? Your kids learned how to play against bigger/older/stronger/faster... players. All in all invaluable experience that will pay huge dividends as the season progresses.

Hope you are well - good to hear from you again.

Keep your fingers crossed, we play our fiercest rivals tomorrow morning. The team we'll play has several players who trained with us previously. and one complete nutjob coach.

/frat/Woooo!/boy/ Today is the first day of league play. Our kids have had to play a year up in all the competitions we've been in and have held their own, but today we got to see how they really compare. We are playing against teams in our own age bracket for League play and I'm excited.

The team we played against is one we have a very real rivalry and in truth quite a bit of animosity. HC couldn't make it today so I got to run the show the way I wanted with no outside input. I wanted a balanced team so I started with


The kids really played out of their socks. I can only remember 4 or 5 times the other team really threatened our goal. LL, Ba, K and Bi really have some nice passing movement. Br showed a bit more today and I have hope for him. Da used to be a VERY selfish player but has really stepped up to become a good team player with intelligent passing.

LL scored 2. One was a beautiful run when he picked the ball up at midfield and dribbled through the defenders. K kept pace with him and LL kept looking over waiting to pass but K, in his excitement was offside the whole way, so LL cut in and slammed the ball home. The other was set up by Da who made a great run then passed the ball out into space in front of LL. LL got there at the same time as the keeper and the ball popped into the air. LL put his back to the goal, blocking the keeper out and caught the ball as it came down with a beautiful volley that went straight over his head, over the keeper, and into the net. Unfortunately he sat out the last 15 minutes of the game after a nasty slide tackle from behind. He had the other player beat so the kid slid in on him, which is a foul, but then the kid rolled up the outside of his left leg causing his knee to buckle. He'll be fine but he's got a pretty nasty limp going.

Da scored 3 in his usual scrappy fashion. When the goal is in front of him the kid has a knack for muscling his way through.

K scored a nice left foot volley and made some really nice runs down the left which is important for his confidence.

Br plays as a very selfish forward but I put him in defensive midfield today and he did a good job in that role.

All in all the kids looked great. I was happy with their performance and they looked very happy with the result.

Cool!

(err, what was the result?)

6 nil to our boys.

It has been really hard to keep up on this because we've been so busy, but 2.0 is down for a nap so here is a brief rundown. As mentioned in another thread we had another big tournament recently. This tournament was HUGE, with a capital UGE. There were a bunch of sponsors, but Puma really put some serious backing into this one. without going into all the details I'd like to point out that we're a tier 2 team but they didn't have a tier two bracket and they didn't want us to play down in tier 3, so they bumped us up into tier 1. What's that mean? Our kids played the three top ranked teams in the state.

They played awesome. Absolutely incredible. Every one of them. They won those three games 2-0, 3-0, and 2-0. Three clean sheets and plenty of goals. They won the whole tournament playing up a division. Lil Lookout played very well, but the surprise was K who finally came out of his shell and lit the place on fire. Well done boys.

This morning we played another Tier 1 team and beat them 7-1. I think they'll be moving us up to Tier 1 at the end of the season.

Below are some pics from the tournament.

A few of action shots. Sorry about the sizing. still trying to figure that out.

Excellent, congratulations to the kids... and their coach. :thumb2:

I'd like to point out the obvious - Lil Lookout is just a small part of the team, but it would not be kosher to go into great detail and drop pictures of other children on the webz. He is not treated as the star on the field.

Last night Mrs L went to a wedding and reception while I stayed home with the kids. It broke my heart, but... ah, nevermind - I don't like the bride so I stayed home. She took one of her girlfriends. Why is this news worthy of this thread? Because the girlfriend just told me about the dinner conversation Mrs L had. She is generally very anti-conflict and diplomatic so it's pretty unusual for her.

Male guest: My wife tells me your kid plays soccer?

Mrs L: Yes, he plays for ____soccerclub.

Male guest: Cool. Is he any good?

Mrs L: He seems to be. He really loves the game.

Male guest: Well if he's any good you should bring him over to my club. I own ______ soccer academy. I've been coaching for ten years and I only hire the best coaches. I've thought about buying your club, but the price just isn't right.

Mrs L: Our club is a non-profit organization.

Male guest: You know what I mean. You really should bring him over to work with some real coaches.

Mrs L: Thanks, but we're pretty happy with our club. The kids really are great friends and all the parents get along very well.

Male guest: That's nice, but the club isn't that great at developing players. We have the best coaches in the western US. Many of them have played professionally overseas. In fact, your club has asked me to take over training duties because they don't really have any qualified coaches.

Mrs L: We really do like our club and besides we've seen some ugly incidents with your club's coaches. In the age group over us, the team was ejected from a tournament because the coaches verbally assaulted the referees.

Male guest: That's not how it happened. The referees just didn't like our team winning.

Mrs L: I was at that game. I know exactly what happened. Your team wasn't winning. Besides, we really work on good sportsmanship above all and I've seen your players throw some pretty dirty moves on the field. I wouldn't want lil lookout associated with that.

Male guest: We teach our kids proper physical soccer. You've probably just heard the completely ridiculous story from when two of our teams played and one of your kids wasn't big enough to take a physical challenge - he hurt his knee a little is all. My son is the one involved so I know it was blown out of proportion.

Mrs L: Your player got beat and slid in from behind after grabbing our player's shirt and then drove his knee straight into our kid so his knee buckled. It really could have been ugly. Our player limped for several weeks and there were concerns about ligament damage. Your parents mocked him from the sidelines because he cried.

Male guest: That's just not true. The kid from your team pretended he got hurt to win a free kick. Your coach was completely unprofessional in his handling of it. A proper coach would have explained to the parents that sometimes games get physical. A proper coach would have taught his players how to win a physical game. A proper coach would pick bigger players for his team so he didn't have to worry about stuff like that. You really should move your kid over to our club before he falls any further behind in his development.

Mrs L: Actually I don't think that would work.

Male guest: Why?

Mrs L: Because you're a walking fuckstick. I'd urge my kid to take up ballet before I let him associate with the assholes and idiots at your club. I've watched our team beat yours every time they've met. MY kid is the one who got hurt on the field that day because YOUR kid was taught to play dirty. My kid personally lit your team up for two goals and a couple assists on the way to our 6-0 win. My kid is the one who had to ask me what a pussy was because one of your parents called him one for crying while he was down on the ground. I know this because I was there, standing next to my husband who happens to be the coach. So how about you go get another drink and leave me the fuck alone?

Apparently there were a few gasps and chuckles but that pretty much ended it. That guy really is a douche. His primary coaching technique is screaming until he is in danger of blowing blood vessels at which point he throws his clipboard and storms off. :D

First, congrats on the win, and great pics.
Second, congrats on the win because it's so obvious it's not all about that - for you, your family and the team.
Thirdly, congrats on your wife. You were right to fight for her.

Well done all round, and may the asshats of the world realise what teamwork means when they come up against it.

Ahhh Lookout - the fond memories your stories bring back. Absolutely spectacular. Gotta love it. Mrs. Lookout also rocks.

:rotflol: :notworthy

Heh. I love it. Excellent job, Mrs. L. Excellent!

WOOHOO Mrs. L! Way to tell the asshat. Congrats, Lookout, for a great season, and a great job coaching. You n my dad would get along great; he coached my lil bro for nearly ten years and has the exact same outlook on the game: TEAMWORK. So having sat through several games where kids were pushed for GOALS and selfish playing and very PHYSICAL playing, I have to give you kudos for being one of the GOOD coaches :D Way to go!

It is appropriate that the thread is titled "A New Hope" because it sounds like Mrs Lookout just found the thermal exhaust port.

We just got back from a week in the arctic north. Lil Lookout missed one game. Being the cocky little bastard he is, he was convinced the team would suffer without him.

As it turned out the team had to play missing him, Ba, and Br. Essentially two of the more creative players and the best defender. Lil Lookout was in agony over how his poor team would do without them. I think he was in greater agony when I let him know his team won 13-0 without him, Ba, and Br.

S scored a hattrick. (possibly the only goals he will score in his life)
K scored 4
Bi scored 3 and had a few assists.

The boys stepped up and stuck together as a team. As luck would have it they were playing a team having some issues, but that doesn't negate the fact they still had to play without 3 of the 7 starters.

Well done boys. And to LL, Br, and Ba... I found these three chips egos on the floor, might they belong to you?

Congratulations, Lookout and family, for being such great sports parents and teaching good sportsmanship.

My kids are big sports participants too -- son plays baseball and wrestles, daughter does all-star cheer, basketball sidelines cheer and spent 3 years in competitive gymnastics. So I've seen the good, bad, and ugly, boy have I.

We've been so lucky to get involved with organizations and coaches that teach good sportsmanship and are more concerned with the kids' emotional health than with winning. That's not to say they don't push the kids to do their best and enjoy winning! It's a difficult balance.

Last summer my son's baseball team (minors - 9 year old boys) against a team whose parents were horribly obnoxious. They had spent WAY too much time making up signs and all kinds of "spirit" doodads (I've seen less at pro games), and the whole game they made noise to distract our players and called them foul names.

Our coach called a huddle for all of us and said "We can't stop them from doing this, but we can show them how a real team behaves." He urged us not to rise to their bait and do what they were doing in retaliation. We didn't.

Our team lost (came in 3rd, in the league) but we still felt like winners.

At Sunday's cheer competition, my daughter's team got 3rd place again. (um...out of 3) She tells me that, anticipating not coming in first, she urged her teammates to cheer for the winning team anyway. Some of them did, and she tells me they were the only people who did so. In the YMCA gymnastics league, that is what they were expected to do, and it's also what she was taught by last year's school team (though it's easier when you're always getting 1st place!) She approached one of them on the way out of the arena - I was with her - and said "Good job, you guys were really awesome today!" The girl looked at her like she had two heads, but then out popped a big grin and she said "thanks."

I know this sound sappy, but we're teaching our kids more than how to compete - we're giving them big hearts, too.

We had another fun tournament this weekend. It is an annual tournament for charity - the registration fees are barely enough to cover the expenses but every player and coach is required to bring a $10+ toy donation. We're talking approximately 2,000 participants, so pretty awesome. Good fun for a good cause.

Our team is having some behind the scenes issues that I've been trying to stay out of and pretend I'm ignorant of and it isn't really working. HC is a friend and someone I really like. He is an excellent trainer. These kids and the game are his passion - his girlfriends always go away after realizing they will always come in second if the choice is between them and the kids. That being said, he has some blindspots when it comes to player development and team chemistry. That's ok, those happen to be the areas I really excel in. We're a good team. Except during times like this. For the last three weeks he has blown off my thoughts on the team and players because he has a mental image of what is. Unfortunately, he doesn't adjust his image to align with current realities. That means some players he has defined as stars are given too much while those that he feels are "role players" are left to pick up the pieces. Example: Lil Lookout is his star outside shooter and creative force on the right. Therefore Lil Lookout will play every minute possible and other players only sub in long enough to give him a breather. I love Lil Lookout like a son:;): but the boy is off the boil. His shots are still amazing but his workrate is down, his attitude is poor, and his confidence is shot. Br should be playing that spot instead of LL right now. There are a couple other examples but this sums it up.

OK, so team chemistry is suffering because the coaches are having a difference of opinion. Unacceptable. I have chosen to back off a bit and while I'm still there and doing my bit I've become less vocal. I figure HC will work through whatever is going on and when he's ready we'll pick up where we left off. The problem is that some of the parents have been rumbling for awhile that they want me as the HC and want him as the lead trainer. I avoided the topic and played deaf. A couple parents approached me off the record and I told them absolutely not. This is HIS team. He created the club. He gathered these kids. He makes career choices around how it will affect the teams he coaches. I will not step up and help strip him of his role simply because things are a little rocky right now. That was the end of the story for me.

Apparently someone quietly asked him to step back this weekend and watch how I handled the games in his absence. No one told me this though. Effectively the first two games of the tournament were completely blown because of poor coaching. I didn't realize until ten minutes into the first game that he wanted me to be the coach. FUCK. OK, so now I start directing the kids in the way they play for me. But then he starts calling subs. We use players differently so his instruction didn't match with what the other players were doing. Complete screw up. Same thing for the second game. I can coach, I can sit in the back and support, but I can't do half and half. The kids get confused and things just don't go well. We tied both games so were effectively out of the running but we still had another day to go.

Day two rolls around and Lil Lookout wakes up with a 103 temp and allergy/asthma issues. I leave him with Mrs L and go to the game to find out HC won't be there. OK, fine. the kids played great and we ran out 8-0 winners. 5 players scored with a hattrick from Br in that right side creative role.

Lil Lookout got his issues sorted and was able to make the afternoon game. So was HC. Again he hung in the back allowing me to coach... but would randomly start shouting instructions that would send a player off on a different mission. Eh, whatever - we won 2-1 with wonder strikes from Lil Lookout and K.

The kids played very well as individuals all weekend long but the chemistry and teamwork that is their trademark was missing in all four games. Sadly in preparing this after tournament post I couldn't think of any really excellent stretches of play worth reporting. Great individual performances but no unit cohesion.

All in all the kids had fun but there is an underlying tension at work amongst the adults right now. This too shall pass, just kind of a disappointing weekend.

Joint command almost never works. You and he should sort this out between you.

It is sorted. He is in command. I know it, accept it, and embrace it. I'm just the support. For whatever reason he doesn't want/need the support I give to the degree I did before. Cool. I will be here to do what I'm asked when/if I'm asked.

He's being a little schizo right now and he'll work through it. I'll just be more on my toes to ensure it doesn't affect the kids in the future.