Monday, September 5, 2011

Fire Ninjas

I am quite the super hero!  A couple weeks ago I realized that it was almost soccer season and I thought it would be fun to coach a kids team.  So, I emailed around to the different soccer clubs around here to see if they were in need of any coaches.  Coaching is 100% volunteers and usually one of the parents of the kids on the team steps up to coach, so it wasn't very likely, but I thought I might as well ask.

Lucky for me, there was a team that was in desperate need of a coach.  Apparently the club had called through the roster of kids to beg the parents to coach.  The called a meeting hoping that they would have better luck convincing a parent to step up if they talked to them in person.  If no one would step up and be willing to coach that season, then the team would be dissolved and done with.

This is where I came in!  They had called the meeting and were sad that this team was about to be done, and then they got my email.  They were thrilled but wondering who I was and why in the world would I want to coach "just for fun".  We chatted a bit and they realized I wasn't crazy and that they had a willing volunteer!

At the meeting they introduced me to the parents and my new team.  They were all grateful that I wanted to help, but I was so glad that none of the parents wanted to do it :)  We all got what we wanted!!

We have had our first week of practice and it has been really fun.  They are all 8 and 9 years old so most of them have the basics down.  There are a couple of air heads, but what team doesn't have those :) At the end of the first day, one boy came up to me, gave me a hug and said, "I love to play soccer so much and I am so happy you will be my coach.  Thanks a lot."  He is the sweetest boy, but he is serious about soccer and he is a really good player.

We weren't assigned a team name and so I let the boys decide on what they wanted.  I kept pushing for the Fireballs since that was my team name when I was little.  They liked it since it wasn't girly.  The boys submitted their favorite team names and we voted.  I had them vote with their eyes closed...they still peeked.  Some of the boys had their hands over their eyes with their fingers cracked so they could see and every time I would say a team name the boys who liked that team name would raise their hands.  The ones that were peeking would swing their head around and see what people were voting for...really sneaky :)  I was a little tempted to sway the votes and say Fireballs won the vote, but it came in a close second.  The majority wanted to be the Fire Ninjas.  I was surprised to see that the Killer Kittens came in 3rd...goofy boys!  These boys crack me up and I have already been karate chopped by one boy when I asked for a high 5 :)  It will be a fun season!

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