I have been meaning to post about soccer all season long. Almost 8 weeks ago I started coaching Drew's kindergarten team. I coached last spring and enjoyed it and was looking forward to having this experience again with Drew. This time around though things have been seriously different.
To start off with I was given a team with all boys. Six 5-year old boys. Anyone spend a lot of time with 5 year old boys? If you have; you know exactly where this is going. These boys are enthusiastic, energetic, creative, curious and exhausting all at the same time. I started the season off trying to be the nice, encouraging happy-go-lucky coach. After two practices of having my butt kicked by little boys I realized I needed to take a new approach. They were shocked when they showed up to practice to find me armed with a whistle and an attitude.
We instilled a new "one-warning" policy. They would get one warning from me and then after that spend the rest of practice on the sidelines watching. I only actually had to do this twice the entire rest of the season. At first I was worried that they would hate me and hate practices. That it wouldn't be fun enough for them. But I very quickly realized that they loved the new me. All of the sudden I had order and some control and they were trying hard to please me and do well. It was amazing! They are still kids so things weren't perfect by any means but definitely better.
This past season has been so challenging for me but also so rewarding. I'm happy to have met these little boys and happy to have had a small little part in their lives. I don't think I have a future in coaching by any means but it's nice to step out of your personal box and try something new.
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