Saturday, January 17, 2009

Myappreciation for my home town sports....

I was so excited to see they Navy had a pee wee soccer team, I marked it on my calender and drove down to the office early that am to register Keao. I go and buy her cleats and shin guards and socks, I find shorts for her at Goodwill that were never worn for $2.00 ( I love a bargain:) Anyway, the first day of practice (in October) is where my excitement wears off and my appreciation begins. I get to the field and there are a way to many people, and they all have strollers and no one knows what is going on, no staff, no signs, nothing! Just a bunch of family's standing around under the only tree on the field trying to get some sun relief. Now I should also mention that they made the practice/game time for noon on Sat...for 4 year old! Obviously they don't know that they still need to be fed and most still need naps at this age and can't handle waiting. This is my first grip...Then finally a man shows up and has everyone gather in the middle of the sunny field to introduce the couches....45min latter, in the BLAZING sun he is still talking! Now most of the kids have lost it, they are whining, babies are crying, and me the pregnant lady is very annoyed and HOT! Then, although I have half tuned this guy out I hear " We don't have soccer balls, so we are asking all the kids to bring there own." What? are you joking? What did I and the other 80 parents just pay $30 a pop for? Then he tells us " I see most of the kids wearing cleats and shin guards and those aren't allowed" What? This is soccer right? Now do I have to remind this guy he is dealing with 4 year old who by nature can't kick very well and will probably kick a few shins in the process, and sneakers on wet grass usually = kids falling down and running over each other! Now if this is not enough he says " And we except the parent to stay with the child during practice taking him/her to each station" I though I signed her up for a team sport not a soccer clinic! Need I remind you I'm melting, a whale and at this point I'm dealing with contractions! I can't be running around on a soccer field! So finaly this guy stops talking and the kids have 10 mins to "pratice" with out balls...so they run...what a pratice!
The next week I bring her and its still a cluster of people standing around, I find her couch, tell him I'm in no shape to run around on a field and let him know he is in charge of her. I go a park my large self in the shade and watch... its half amuzing, half ????, I see way too many parents pushing strollers chasing their child around the field, I see whiny kids complaning and no soccer balls for soccer pratice! What happend to making a team of 10-15 kids and setting a time for pratice and games, this is what I had when I was a kid. we went, we listened to the couch, we did drills, then we had games. Oh and the money our parents paied bought soccerballs!
Well the season fially ended with a certificate and a medal....Yeah! At least she had Fun!

1 comment:

Howdy said...

I'm glad you got the comments figured out... it was hard being quiet... I am your Momma! LOL

When you started in Soccer you were older by a few years... the little ones like Keao really don't 'play' the way you remember playing and the supervised activities I think are pretty standard for that age group. I agree with you that the balls could have been provided... but you've got to be able to roll with the game...LOL
Love... Granny