Soccer moms kick grass!

I am a soccer coach. I never intended to become a soccer coach...it just sort of happened.

I coached gymnastics for 7 years and LOVE working with kids; teaching them new things and seeing that "light bulb" moment when they finally get what you are saying. Bliss.

Soccer is one sport I never played growing up. Truth be told, it scared me to death!

My daughter plays soccer...she's pretty amazing.

She will run right up to the biggest boy on the other team and take the ball from him. Bam!

She will get tripped and jump right back up.

She will run until she's too tired and then will keep running.

I'm not saying she's perfect, but she puts her whole heart into what she is doing.

She tried gymnastics and didn't like it. She tried dance and wasn't a fan(she wanted to freestyle instead of following direction). Last spring we asked her if she wanted to try softball and she replied that she would rather play soccer.

To make sure that she got the same coach that she has had the last 2 seasons I signed up to be the assistant coach, thinking that I could just help out a little and make sure she had a coach who would teach her what she needed to know.

He signed up to teach our U-8 team as well as a U-10 team and has assistant coaches to help on each team. It started out that the plan was to have both teams practice together, but when we realized that they just have too many skill level differences we decided to split the teams up.

That makes me the main coach now for our team. Yikes!

Thankfully I have parents on our team who have actually played the game before to help me teach the kids. This book has also been very helpful: How to Coach a Soccer Team by Tony Carr. 

This should be an interesting season and I am sure that I will continue coaching.

Evil snack lady

Yep, that's me! That's how I feel right now.

Today was my turn to bring snack for Brooklyn's soccer team. I have been back to first trimester all-day sickness for over a week now and was praying all day that the rain would continue so our game would get cancelled and I could just sleep. No such luck. I got up and washed and cut up apples for the 8 kids on our team as well as a few extras for siblings and put them into individual baggies for the half-time snack and then I packed juice boxes and fruit by the foots for after the game. Brook and I got there early and I carried the cooler and my camp chair across the field to where our game was going to be and got set up(Jon was on an appointment and was going to meet us there).

Half time. I pull out my hand sanitizer wipes for the kids to clean their hands before snack and then reach for the bags of apple slices to pass out. I hear someone say "Come get your snacks" and see the kids line up at another parent who is passing out gogurts. What?!?!?!? I was really confused and I asked why he had snacks because it was my day....okay so "asked" may not be the right term. I'm pregnant and sick and reluctantly fulfilled my obligation and someone else shows up with tubes of yogurt....I probably came off a little aggressive. The coach said that someone would have to bring snacks for Monday and I said that it wouldn't be me; today was my scheduled day and I brought it.

After the game the coach tells me that she saw the dad wipe a tear from his eye. Now I don't really know how much of that is true and how much was the coach teasing me, but I felt really really bad at this point. Then I felt mad that I felt bad about it. IT WAS MY TURN TO BRING SNACK! How hard is it to look at a schedule and know when your date is? So then I get in the car and just start bawling. Now this man and who knows who else thinks that I am just an evil raging snack freak. Great.

A pink sharpie and a soccer ball...

I signed Brooklyn up to play soccer last weekend. This will be her first time playing soccer and her first sports team. She has taken gymnastics and dance classes before, but those just weren't her thing. Hopefully she will like soccer. She was really scared when I first started talking about it...she thought they would expect her to know how to play already. I told her that they would teach her and that they would practice together and then she was excited about it. Today after I picked her up from school we went to Big 5 and she picked out a pink and white soccer ball. Practice starts in a few weeks and we are all so excited to see how she likes it. I really hope she does, because once we start a season she will finish it:)

I just happened to have a pink sharpie to write her name on her new ball. She was pretty excited about that:)

Her kick is adorable...I am sure her technique could use some work though:)