The End of Soccer

Well all, we did it. We survived my first season coaching soccer. I say "we" very literally. The last 3 months have been an exhausting blast. Poor Louis has really been picking up my slack around the house. I have learned so much. For example:

1. Coaching is REALLY hard.
2. Coaching is NOTHING like teaching.
3. It is a BLAST to interact with students in different situations and see them in a new light.

I didn't exactly learn this, so much as I was reminded of it, but

4. Louis is amazing!

It was so much fun to get to teach Louis all about soccer. He is such a sweetheart. He came to my games to watch and cheer just to support me...he has even been learning all about the rules of soccer. It's been quite nice that he is going in to nutrition as well. A lot of my girls don't really understand the necessity of eating, especially when exercising. He took the time to look up in his old Sports Nutrition books exactly the kind of muscles and skills soccer players need so that he could try to advise me on what to tell my girls to eat so we didn't spend 8 minutes of a game trying to get a girl off the field due to a muscle crap because she hadn't eaten all day....silly girls.

Over all the season went well. We started out recruiting and desperately trying to get enough girls together to actually have a freshman team. We succeeded, but naturally our team was made up of a lot of beginners to soccer. One of the things that I loved most was being able to watch the girls improve so much. I loved that we would work on a skill one week and the next game I could see them actually using that same skill. It's unusual to see that kind of progress so quickly in teaching so it was gratifying. One of the parents actually approached me at the end of our last game and commented, "I wish they could just see how much they have improved this season. They are a whole different team!"

Our last game was away against our rival school. Just 3 weeks before they beat us 3-0 and we managed to pull off a competitive game and walk away with a 1-0 win. You just can't beat that. It was also fun to see Louis respond and help me learn to be a better coach. Our dinner conversations often turned to "How do I deal with this?"  and he would respond with one of two responses usually: 1. WWGD (What would Gibo our head coach Do?) or 2. Make them run!

Needless to say, I've learned a lot. Coaching is truly a lot of fun. Though I will confess, I am really looking forward to coming home 3 hours earlier every day! What am I going to do with myself?

Homecoming

Shadow Ridge had their Homecoming last weekend.  Brielle was asked to chaperone, and she asked to me to help her.  We went and policed the outside part of the dance.  It was quite entertaining for us.  Kids who tried to hide in the dark corners to make out were our responsibility.  We would stand near-by and just talk until they moved.  They weren't going to do anything with us standing so close.  There were some couples who would sit close to each or on each other on benches.  When they did and started getting too physical we would be there making things awkward.  I wanted to sit on the bench right next to them to make it as awkward as possible.  I figured I would only have to do that a couple of times before it stopped completely.  Brielle wouldn't let me do that though. Though she laughed at the thought. Something about how the kids needed to enjoy the dance.  I just wanted to make it memorable.  I also wished that I could either lose 1/4 pound (a full pound would have killed me off) or get a dollar for every time I saw a girl pulling up the top of her dress to keep from falling out.  I would either be really skinny, or be able to take my wife out to a really fancy restaurant if my wishes came true.  We just laughed at the outfits that we saw that evening.  They included dresses so short that the girls were actually sitting directly on the benches because there wasn't enough fabric to cover their hind-ends and the tux with colored sneakers look for the boys. We also watched lots of drama unfold (including the rival school egging Shadow students coming out of the dance).  Why do people ever want to go back to high school?  We had fun though and are glad that we did it.

Stake Day of Service

Our stake did a service day last Saturday.  It was a service project for the homeless teenagers in Vegas.  It consisted of tying fleece blankets and scarves.  Brielle took part in the cutting aspect of the project, while I participated in the tying.  I sat at the same table as Bishop Tebbs.  I worked on one end while he and his daughter, Tori, worked on the other.  It was fun to visit with our bishop and get to know him better.  We also had other members of the ward pass through and help a little at our table.  I had to be there early to help set up.  It was funny to hear all of these men talk about moving tables and chairs, but not setting them up properly.  It didn't matter how we set them up it would probably be wrong.  And sure enough, we had to move everything several times.

General Conference Weekend

General Conference weekend was great.  We went up to Bunkerville to visit Brielle's family.  Another benefit of going to Bunkerville was that Brielle made jam.  Raspberry-peach.  Mmmm.  It was fun to just go and visit and enjoy one another's company.  We consumed lots of good food.  We enjoyed the spirit of conference.  What more could we ask out of the weekend?  Well, that wasn't good enough for us.  On our way out of Bunkerville, I slowed down as we going around this huge bend in the road.  Little did we know that there would a surprise for us on the other side of the bend.  We came around and there was a herd of cows in the middle of the road.  I didn't have time to stop, so we hit a cow.  Luckily, we were able to slow down enough that we were not injured.  The cow ran off.  When the highway patrol officer got there, he looked at the front of the car and said, "You hit a cow."  Followed by, "She even crapped on the hood.  That's just not right. I guess you scared the crap out of her." We were glad that he was so calm and brought humor to the situation.  The tow truck came and after loading up our car, the driver got in the truck and said he has another tow on the way to Vegas.  He wanted to know if that was okay with us.  So we go to meet some new people on the way home.  Their car had broken down.  On our way home, we passed several people who were on the side of the road.  It was the night for accidents and car problems.  We passed at least 5 cars that were on the side of the road.  I have never seen so many cars on the side of the road in such a short stretch of freeway.  Jason, the driver, dropped us off at the Cannery and Brielle's old roommate Abbi, came and picked us up and brought us home.  We counted our blessings.  We are so glad that were protected.  We said many prayers of thanks that night.