"I’m not really sure how we ended up getting roped into doing this, but there I stood on the sidelines of a soccer field, trying to get these kids on my team to follow what we were saying, and…well, honestly I was wondering what the heck had I done. This was what I’d agreed to spend my summer doing? Was it time to go back to school yet?
It first
registered as real when the schedules were sent out. They looked ordinary
enough; eight teams in the 7-to-9-year-old division, sponsored by local
businesses and given nicknames chosen by the coaches. Seven games in the
season, one each weekend, and then the top four teams went to the playoffs,
leading to the final on the ninth Saturday in late July. It kinda looked like
this:
Week One
T1 vs. T8,
T2 vs. T7, T3 vs. T6, T4 vs. T5
Week Two
T1 vs. T7,
T2 vs. T8, T3 vs. T5, T4 vs. T6
Week Three
T1 vs. T6,
T2 vs. T5, T3 vs. T7, T4 vs. T8
Week Four
T1 vs. T5,
T2 vs. T6, T3 vs. T8, T4 vs. T7
Week Five
T1 vs. T4,
T2 vs. T3, T5 vs. T6, T7 vs. T8
Week Six
T1 vs. T3,
T2 vs. T4, T5 vs. T7, T6 vs. T8
Week Seven
T1 vs. T2,
T3 vs. T4, T6 vs. T7, T5 vs. T8
Below that was the listing of teams,
organized alphabetically by sponsor. Also, the color of their jerseys was
given.
T1 - Green – American Exchange Bank (Wild Things)
T2 – Light
Blue – East Central Electric (Roadrunners)
T3 – White – Morgan’s Bakery
(Dalmatians)
T4 – Orange
– Holden’s Drive-In (Mustangs)
T5 – Black – Shurden-Jackson
Funeral Home (Falcons)
T6 – Red –
Shuttle Stop (Avengers)
T7 – Yellow
– Southern Cross Music & Sound (Panthers)
T8 – Blue –
Wendell’s NAPA (Lasers)
There was also a roster, arranged
by age and alphabetical order. (Numbers were inserted later.)
It looked
something like this::
7 - Abby
Colson (2) Defender
7 - Reese Johnson (3) Midfielder
7 - Alex Owens (5) Midfielder
8 - Zoey Chandler (8) Defender
8 - Travis Colson (6) Goalie
8 - Ashton Owens (4) Midfielder
8 - Connor
Reheard (9) Goalie
8 - Bailey Skidgel (7) Defender
9 - Wayne
Montana (16) Forward
9 - Justin Noah (12) Forward
9 - Kelsey Patrick (10) Forward
9 - David Ward (11) Midfielder
I guess it seemed like a good way
to spend summer vacation. I’m not sure. I’d known Trent for a while, we played
on the same soccer team when we were little, called the Panthers. It had been a
while since we’d hung out, he suggested we should coach a soccer team in the
summer park league, thought it could be an interesting experience. Well…it was
that. Fun, but a headache.
We’d just finished our sophomore
year at Hawkins State, for the most part done with gen eds and beginning our major
courses. (I’m a computer-science major, he’s going for a degree in Business and
Management.) My sister Chrissy heard about our idea, and she wanted to help us
out. “It’s a co-ed league now, guys. You’re gonna need a girl to help with the
gender gap.” She’d just graduated from Redfield High, was set to head to
Mountain College in fall.
So it was kind of obvious what we’d
call the team – I mean, it was very cat-powered. Two Bobcats and a
Leopard-to-be, with roots on the Panthers soccer team. It was a no-brainer,
really; there’d be a new group of Panther cubs running around the jungles of Lawson
County Park and the YMCA gym. Some of the other teams were named by coaches,
the Mustangs and Falcons for sure, but most of them let their teams vote on
their team names.
This isn’t coming out very well.
But, then again, English isn’t exactly my best subject, never been able to
write essays that well. I’ll get somebody to clean it up before I show people.
Anyway, so that was how our Southern Cross Music & Sound Panthers got their
nickname.
I’m not really sure who was more
nervous that first night of practice: the coaches or the parents. The kids sure
weren’t. They were examining each other, curious to see who they’d be playing
with. A few already knew each other, and there was a couple sets of siblings.
There were about four or five mothers sitting in the stands, and two
agitated-looking men. There was this flash of blonde braids scampering every
whichaway, another girl explained to her nervous-looking brother something
probably encouraging. This athletic-looking brunette girl and an extremely tall
kid passed a ball back and forth, another older kid joined their game, turning
it into Keepaway.
“Okay…we’ve got everybody here?
Ten, eleven, twelve – um,” (Trent looked at his roster) “Yep, looks like
everyone’s here. Well, anyway, hey guys.” There were a few snickers and shy
smiles. “I’m Trent Harrington, that’s Ryan Long, and we’ll be your coaches.”
Chrissy coughed. “Oh, right. That’s Ryan’s sister Chrissy, she’s the assistant
coach. Anybody have any questions?”
A small kid with wild hair raised
his hand nervously. “Yeah?” Trent prodded. “Have you guys ever coached soccer
before?”
I beat Trent to
the reply. “Nope. But we have played it. We’re just here over the summer from
college, thought it’d be a cool adventure. How many of you all have played
soccer?”
“Where you goin’ to college?” the
tall kid asked.
“They go to
Hawkins State, I’ll be going to Mountain College in Missouri in August,”
Chrissy said.
“D’you mean
have we played organized soccer before, or have we played it at all anyplace?”
the encourager wanted this point clarified. She had extremely bright blue eyes
and a face full of freckles.
“Organized, I think, but I guess at
all,” Trent looked confused.
There were about eight hands
raised. “All right, that works,” I grinned.
“We’ll have to teach some of you
how to play, probably, but that’s part of the game. But first we gotta know who
our players are. Let’s see…” (I looked at my roster) Zoey Chandler?” The
energetic blonde girl shot up from her sitting position. “That’s me.”
“Ashton Owens?” Blue-eyed
Encouragement nodded and grinned. “And this is my brother Alex.” Alex waved
tentatively.
“Justin Noah?” The giraffe looked
expectant. “Me.”
“Wayne Montana.” “Yeah.” I did a
double take. “Wayne Montana??” He rolled his eyes. “Yeah…” “Hmm, okay…” I
continued.
“Kelsey Patrick.” “That’d be me,”
the brunette answered, anxious to get this practice started.
“I keep thinking ‘Kate’ when I see
you…Kelsey, right?” Trent asked. “Yeah. I’ve been called a lot of names, but
why Kate?” “The Big Green.” She
laughed. “That works!”
“I’m David,” the third guy who’d
been kicking it around with Justin and Kelsey said quietly. “David Ward?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Colson…there’s two of you. Abby
and Travis?” “Right. I’m Travis, and this is my little sister Abby.” “I Abby.
Want pway ball?” “That’d be really fun, Abby,” Chrissy knelt down to say hello
to the tiny round munchkin. “I’m Chrissy, I like your pigtails.” Huge smile.
“Thanks!”
“Neither of us have ever played real soccer before, so we prob’ly won’t
be too good. We’ve just kicked it around in the backyard with the dogs.” Travis
explained. “That’s okay, we’ll find you guys a spot somewhere,” my sis answered
breezily.
Reese Johnson turned out to be a
short kid who looked petrified of everything, and Bailey Skidgel was having
trouble talking through his missing front teeth. Connor Reheard (“Reared”, not
“Ree-heard”) was the one I’d tagged as Questions in my margin jots of first
impressions.
We ran through some shooting drills
that first day, switching off on goalie every so often. Most of the kids needed
some help. Travis was a little unsteady on his feet, tended to flop down
easily, so he made a pretty decent goalie. He seemed to like it, too.
Questions, er, I mean Connor, was extremely jumpy, and could reach the high
balls Travis had no chance at. So we at least found out who our goalies were.
Justin, Wayne and Kelsey were downright dangerous when they had possession of
the ball. That was about all we found out skill-wise that first practice. We
had three before the season started, and then about one a week after that.
Trent and Chrissy introduced
themselves to Mrs. Colson, whose name was Heather. “Um....I guess you probably
noticed Trav and Abby aren’t exactly…as talented as the other kids,” she
hesitated. “Yeah, is there something wrong with them?” Chrissy gave Trent a
scathing look. “Yes, we noticed it’ll be a bit more of a challenge for them,
but hopefully we can teach them how to play and they can hopefully have a good
time.”
“Thanks.” Heather smiled. “Travis
has spina bifida, which means some of his nerves are fused together, can’t feel
his feet most of the time. Abby is a Down’s kid,” “Me?” “Yes, you. That means
you’re extra special!” Chrissy has a way with little kids.
“I think if you can just get her to
run around with the other kids, she’d have a great time. Not sure how much of
the actual rules she might understand.” “Okay…” Trent nodded, meaning to Google
these conditions later.
I was talking with Ashton and
Alex’s mom Tammy. She was just as friendly and easy-going as her daughter, she
assured me that once Alex got used to new surroundings he was a great kid. “Is
there anything I can help with? Bringing snacks or anything after the games?”
I hadn’t even thought of things like that. “That’d be
fantastic, they’d probably love that. You really wouldn’t mind?” “Course not!
That’s why I asked.”
Kelsey’s
and Zoey’s moms were discussing photography when I said hello. “Is it all right
if we bring our cameras and set them up on tripods on the sidelines?” “I guess
so, as long as it was far enough away off the field.” “Great, thanks! So,
Sarah, did you say that you use a Nikon D3100, or a Canon Rebel T5i?...”
So for a
first practice it went well, we began to get a rough idea of skill levels,
seeing maybe who could play beside who without tearing their heads off.
The second
practice it was HOT weather. Like, seriously way too hot. After a quick huddle,
we decided just to have them work on passing drills and defense, then call it a
day. Abby was a grouch, she didn’t want to do any of the drills, really, and
just stood by her mom and watched. David and Ashton were amazingly accurate
passers, able to stop the ball dead in its tracks and then shift it over to
whichever teammate was open. “Midfielders?” Trent asked. “Definitely.”
Bailey and
Zoey were dogging each player like mirrors, poking at the ball forever before
wrestling it away. They seemed to hit it off pretty well, too. “Defenders.” “Oh
yeah.” Wayne sent passes incredibly hard and high, terrifying most of his
receivers. “Could you dial it down a bit?” Trent asked with a touch of sarcasm.
Wayne looked down. “Sorry. It’s just…uh…well,” he jerked his head towards the
sideline, where his dad had been hollering unsolicited advice all night.
“Gotcha. Yeah, I’ll try…to…talk to him.” “Wouldn’t do any good.” “I’m your
coach, I kinda figured on running into something like this.” “Try living with
it.”
“So we were
watching this Cardinals game the other night on TV, they were playing the Reds,
down by two in the ninth inning. Bases loaded, two outs, batter hits a grounder
to third, throws to first. The first baseman’s shoe was off the bag, but the
umpire called him out. It was frustrating,” Justin was saying. “Wonder when
we’re gonna get our jerseys?” Conner asked nobody in particular. “They should
be in by our next practice,” Chrissy answered. “They’ll be yellow, right?” Alex
asked. “Uh-huh, that’s right.”
“Uh…Ryan?”
David sounded unsure of himself, like when people are going to ask for a favor.
“Yeah?” “I was wondering…could I get a ride home? Dad’s working late tonight,
so…”
“I guess so, sure. Is it all right
with your mom? I mean, how’d you get over here tonight?” He winced. I’d apparently
touched a sore nerve. “Ah….I came with Ashton and Alex.” He chose to answer
only the second question. “Okay.”
We climbed into my white Geo Metro
and drove out of the parking lot. “You’ll give directions, right?”
“As best I can. We just moved here
not that long ago, haven’t gotten really familiar with the town yet.”
“Where’d you move from?”
“Illinois, near Quincy.”
“You liking Redfield?”
David was looking out the window.
“It’s all right, I guess. Kind of hard getting to know people, though.”
“Sorry. Sometimes it takes a
while.”
“Yeah…the Owenses live a couple
blocks down, they seem friendly.”
“They do. Maybe you guys could hang
out or something.”
“Yeah.”
“Any siblings or anything?”
“Yeahh…brother and sister, they’re
living with Mom.”
“Ah,” I said, unsure of what to
say.
“Got divorced about seven months
ago, we moved here two months ago.”
“I see,” I paused. “So…what’d you
like to do? You know, when there isn’t school or anything.”
“Well….I used to play hockey. And I
like to draw.”
“I’ve never been very good at
drawing. Hockey seems like fun to play. I can’t hardly skate, though.”
He sort of grinned. “It isn’t that
hard. Kind of like soccer, but on ice.”
“And with a lot more padding.”
“For sure. Wore No. 11 for my team,
we were the Wildcats.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“Yeah, and my favorite number.”
“Favorite number, huh?” I had an idea… "
No comments:
Post a Comment