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A disappointing season
On Sunday, my wife and I went to watch the final game of the season for the travel soccer team our younger daughter was supposed to play on this fall. While it was nice to see the girls and their parents, we were disappointed to hear that the team had had a disappointing season. Not only had they lost most of their games, there was a great deal of tension between the parents and the coaches, and it looks like the team may fall apart before next season. Watching the game, I noticed that the girls seemed to lack any assertiveness on the field, waiting for the other team to make a play and then reacting to it, rather than challenging for the ball and forcing their opponents to make a play. There also didn't seem to be any players who were clear leaders on the field.
I couldn't help wondering how things might have been different. Our daughter's experiences last spring, playing with her older sister's team, taught her how to assert herself against bigger, stronger players. Her self-confidence grew tremendously after learning that she could play well against the older girls, and that translated into both highly assertive play at her own age level as well as well as a growing ability to assume leadership on the field. We'll never know for sure, but I'd like to think that this team would have had more success if she'd been able to join them for the season.
I also think that the tensions with the coaches might have been moderated as well. My wife was planning to be the team manager, a role in which she could have served as a buffer between the coaches and the other parents. She is generally pretty good and helping people work together, and perhaps she could have prevented some of the hard feelings that have emerged. Or not. It's hard to say. But in any event, it was a little sad to see that the team we'd helped get established struggle. We originally only wanted to find a place for our daughter to develop her skills and find a challenge worthy of her talent. We're really sad to find that our efforts have been such a general failure.
I couldn't help wondering how things might have been different. Our daughter's experiences last spring, playing with her older sister's team, taught her how to assert herself against bigger, stronger players. Her self-confidence grew tremendously after learning that she could play well against the older girls, and that translated into both highly assertive play at her own age level as well as well as a growing ability to assume leadership on the field. We'll never know for sure, but I'd like to think that this team would have had more success if she'd been able to join them for the season.
I also think that the tensions with the coaches might have been moderated as well. My wife was planning to be the team manager, a role in which she could have served as a buffer between the coaches and the other parents. She is generally pretty good and helping people work together, and perhaps she could have prevented some of the hard feelings that have emerged. Or not. It's hard to say. But in any event, it was a little sad to see that the team we'd helped get established struggle. We originally only wanted to find a place for our daughter to develop her skills and find a challenge worthy of her talent. We're really sad to find that our efforts have been such a general failure.