soccer

So, we are into soccer season now.  I have three kids playing on separate teams on different fields, with 6 different practice times each week....and guess what?  I am also coaching!  Could I make my life any more busy?  Probably, yes.  This is the thing....we get emails from the soccer league saying that there weren't enough coaches for Mara's age group and that if they didn't find coaches, they would not be playing.  So I am feeling guilty because I do know how to play soccer, I love soccer, and I would hate for the girl's to not get to play.  So, I reply and say that I would coach only if it were absolutely necessary since I have 3 kids to get to practice and a husband that is often not around to help.  And if I must coach, I would need an assistant coach to cover me sometimes.  So, yes, I am coaching, and I get an assistant coach that is an older gentleman with a daughter on the team.  And as the first practice evolves, I learn from the girls on the team that this assistant coach is actually the head girl's soccer coach for one of the high schools in town!  O.k., so now I feel really inadequate and would like to just turn the team over to him....but, no, I'm the "coach."  I really in all likelihood could just let him run the show, but the thing is, that I have spent a lot of time reading up on soccer and soccer drills and I am really pretty excited about coaching.  I'd really like to try my hand at it.  So, the second practice, I do a couple of warmups with the girls, then give him the opportunity to do a drill.  What resulted was confusion because he didn't remember exactly the drill and the girl's were so confused....nothing was accomplished.  So, I begin to doubt his "coach" title, go home and look on the school's website and discover that he was actually the "coach of the year" for soccer in this area!  Oh great!   Anyhow, we've had a few more practices and I've noticed that he does have some good coaching skills and a good sense of the game.  I'm always questionning myself as I'm explaining something to the girls, wondering if what I'm saying is completely wrong....he would know.  Oh well, I am learning to assert myself more and take charge of the practice...asking him to help with certain skills while I work on others.  Hopefully together we'll help the girls improve in some way this season.  I actually feel like I am playing soccer again...as I stand with the girls they are all my same size...and then the older coach seems to be talking to me, too!  It's fun....I really do love it...and hopefully I'll learn some good things from him...I just wish he was the head coach and I was his assistant!