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?