Kid's sports - parent's perspective needed

[lookout123]

Wow, I haven't updated here in awhile and now the session is over.

Two weeks ago they lost by 2 points and were pretty dejected. The parents were furious and it sparked a little bit of a storm at the club. I stayed cool and used it as a learning lesson to the best of my abilities. The team we were playing was "missing a couple kids" so the coach asked me 5 minutes before the game if I would make him forfeit or if I would let him borrow kids from the previous game to fill out his roster. I, of course, told him to get the kids together and let's play.

He didn't grab kids from the game before us. He grabbed 4 kids from the game that had finished outside. The 4 kids he used were all really good club players, including their keeper. Oh, and he did have enough players since he had 5 on the bench by 3 minutes into the game. Oh well, that isn't what made the parents mad. They were furious because 2of the players (twins) he had borrowed are well known and really really dirty. They are coached that way by their parents. The dad is a complete knucklehead who stands on the sidelines before the game screaming at them to "get pissed, kick ass, and take 'em out if they get in your way!" Freaking moron.

Anyway, the game was really tight and my kids stayed with them the whole game. The twins were taking my kids out left and right though. Unfortunately some genius scheduled 2 really young kids as the refs for the game. They were supposed to have a seasoned ref to train them, but somehow that didn't happen. There were some really nasty fouls out there but the ref's were afraid to blow their whistles. The parents really started howling when one of their players knocked the ball out of my keeper's hands with his own hand and then kicked it in. A foul for a number of reasons, but the ref let the point stand. Shortly after that Lil Lookout shot it and hit the keeper right in the nose with blood splattering. LL had the ball back and was about to tap it in, but chose to stop and take a knee since the ref's hadn't blown the whistle. Good sportsmanship. Unfortunately the ref gave the ball to the keeper after the restart instead of returning possession to LL. My kids were pretty frustrated. Lil Lookout usually scores his points and then drops back and works for assists, but the other kids couldn't get it past the keeper so they would feed the ball to Lil Lookout whenever they'd get it. He made some great shots but I didn't realize til after the game that he had again scored all but one of our eight points. He was getting bruised and beaten and finally ran out of gas with about two minutes left. Then it happened.

I guess I should mention that LL is extremely girl crazy and insanely protective of all girls. And he has a temper that I'm doing my best to harness. One girl on our team, L , has a huge crush on lil lookout. He has a huge crush on another girl K. Well, one of the twins took out both girls with really nasty off-the-ball fouls in a matter of 10 seconds. Both girls are down on the ground and the ref doesn't blow the whistle. There are only about 20 seconds left in the game and Lil Lookout, who is exhausted, sprints across the field at the twin who has the ball and I just knew it was trouble. Lil Lookout is only 3'9" and 41 lbs (with no sense of self preservation)and the twin has a good 20 lbs on him, but that didn't seem to matter as LL ran up and dropped his shoulder and slammed the twin into the wall pinning him. At the same time he threw his elbow into the kids stomach hard enough that I heard the "Ooooof!" from across the field. As the kid hit the ground LL spun around with the ball that he had just won and kicked it straight at the kid's head and screamed loud enough for all to hear, "YOU DON'T HIT GIRLS!" With that done he turned around to walk off the field.

I was really expecting some negative repurcussions but all the parents in the stands started clapping and whistling. Hmm. Not behavior I want encouraged. Lil Lookout was embarrassed and ashamed and ran off to cry. I pulled him back out and he apologized to the downed twin.

The buzzer goes off, we lose. The kids did our normal post game cheer and handshake.

Not a great week but definitely some important lessons in perseverence. And yes, I dealt with Lil Lookout's behavior at home.

[lookout123]

Saturday was our last game as a team. We practiced really hard on Wednesday then had our pizza party. The kids were nervous going into the last game because the team we were playing had the 4 "tough" players we had played the week before. We worked on playing smarter and what to do when the twins started fouling them.

DE and D are my two most solid defenders. What they lack in technique they make up in heart. C is a natural defensive midfielder. I worked with them on wednesday and reminded them on saturday about a couple ways to take care of the twins.

I started with my strongest defensive line up with those three back and Lil Lookout in the goal. DE and D did exactly what I taught them. The big move that the twins have is to lean hard on the defenders and then hit them with their elbow as they try to get the ball. Throughout the whole game DE and D would let the twins lean up against them but would just step aside as the twin swung their elbows, causing them to fall. Neither of the twins scored in the whole game. I showed them how the twins would bump the ball too far in front of them and then run up on it. During the game my kids would let the twins bump the ball out in front but instead of trying to steal the ball and dribble away, my kids would just put their foot behind the ball and the twins would trip over the ball due to their own poor technique.

All but one of my kids scored in the game. The one who didn't was my one defender D who I couldn't get to play any other position all session. He asked to play midfield. That was a huge step. For me that was as good as scoring a goal. Lil Lookout stopped a shot from the other team while in the goal and instead of kicking it out like normal, he dropped it at his own feet and dribbled the full length of the field and tapped it in with a backheel. He scored another with an impressive left foot strike. My girl who doesn't really do much managed to head a ball in for a goal. The ref's actually called fouls! That always works in my team's favor because I spend a lot of time coaching clean play. We scored 3 points off free kicks. Everyone was involved and having a blast.

Because of the treatment my kids had received from this same basic set of kids the week before I didn't put the leash on them and they just kept scoring. The final score was 23-1 and I don't feel bad at all. My kids gave their cheer and shook hands after the game. They were all so pumped at beating the bullies, I couldn't get them to sit still in the locker room, so we picked up pizzas and took them to the park for pizza and trophies.

After a bizarre start to the season we ended up with a record of 7-2-1. 1 of the players has to move up to the next age bracket and 2 are taking a session off so we won't have the same group together anymore. Player evaluations are tonight and then it all starts over again next week. Hopefully we have as much fun next time around.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good job, coach.