Fred and Lydia, Soccer Coaches

    I try to keep my Rosebushes growing up healthy by encouraging them to play sports.   Jax is too young right now for sports but he'll get there soon enough.   Emma however wants to play every sport imaginable.   She has tried basketball and did well.   She is currently doing gymnastics and is doing well. She is about as coordinated as her mother which leaves a lot to be desired but she makes it work.   We just finished her first season cheerleading for our church's Upwards league.   Cheerleading was the only organized sport that I ever truly enjoyed and was good at so I had high hopes for Emma.   Maybe I even wanted to relive my cheerleading glory days through my kid BUT I don't know if she was that into it.   She told me after game 2 that it was "boring".  She stuck with it and learned to enjoy the performances but bless her heart she inherited her daddy's rhythm.  There is hope for her,  she could grow out of it.   Maybe? Hopefully!?!  Now we are starting our second season of soccer.   Soccer I believe may be her sport.   She is actually very coordinated with her little feet.   She's fast.  If we could get her to be a little more aggressive she would be the perfect little player.  This season we decided to have a little extra fun and Fred and I volunteered to coach.   I know you're all thinking that we are nuts and you would be absolutely correct.   I really thought "these kids are 5 and 6, how hard could it be? "  Tonight after our first practice with our little team it was painfully obvious that we were in over our heads.   It is worth noting that Fred and I have exactly ZERO soccer experience.  I dated a guy in high school that played soccer does that count?   These kids ran circles around us.   We tried to do some practice drills but focusing 10 kids is like herding cats.   Some of then actually are pretty coordinated and most of them have played soccer before but our biggest obstacle will be reminding them that they are all on the sane team.    We tried a little scrimmage at practice and they kept stealing the ball from each other and running in whatever direction the wind blew.   One poor kid kept rolling around muddy ground and for the life of me I don't know why.   One boy insisted that he wanted to play with his water bottle in hand. My own daughter stopped calling me mom and started calling me coach.  Another little boy politely asked me if I knew what I was doing,  more than once!  This was easily one of the longest hours of my life.   Fred and I spent a lot of time laughing at our glaring inadequacies.  We kept those little people busy for an hour and at the end they were all smiling so I guess it wasn't a total failure.     Our first game is Saturday if you'd like to come out and witness coaching greatness we'll be at the Southwest YMCA at 9:00AM.