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.
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.
