Soccer- Fall 2013

Soccer- Fall 2013 This fall season has been a doozy. We had elijiah try out for a team in SLC and he didn’t make it. I guess they had a full team, or nearly full team from what we were told and had tryouts for a second team but didn’t get enough players and so in the end he just wasn’t good enough for the first team. While Elijiah is a great defensive player, that is the only position he plays. He doesn’t have the opportunity on his current team to play other positions which is a real disadvantage in situations like this…his skills or lack of in other areas don’t shine. So we decided to continue to play on his competition team in Utah county which is a great team, just a lot of driving. Im not sure when next year rolls around what we will do…the division between the really die hard soccer players has already begun as we can see. Those that play year round. Those kids that eat breath and live soccer, play year round and those that don’t. Elijiah does not. He loves it. Hes very good. But hes also very good at Basketball and plays that and skiis in the winter. He also has shown some Talent for track and field sports. Hes very tall. Hes growing a bit and finding that soccer skills are more for shorter stature kids and hes loosing some of his footing if you will and ground skill wise each year as he gets bigger to those that are more agile. I think he will continue to play competition, but probably not at the elite level some of his teammates are playing with each passing year. Most of the college level, professional level soccer players are not 6’5 lol….and Elijiahs height will continue to be an advantage to him in other sports so we will see how many more years he will play soccer over other sports such as basketball. That being said…his current team while not undefeated like last year, is playing well. They are fun to watch and they continue to improve and they are a great team.

This is Tristans first year in soccer. I wanted to have him wait the extra year to play a team sport and soccer seemed like the logical choice. It’s a good cardio sport. Fun, and hello something that I already knew a lot about. However at the last minute his team didn’t have a parent volunteer to coach so I stepped up and thought it would be fun to do. Boy was I wrong. Tristan has been difficult. He is all over the place, meltdowns in the middle of practice and games and I have another boy who I believe is autistic so between the two of them and the general nature of 5 year olds picking grass, attention spans and really lack of any skill and focus its been a challenge. Its like herding cats. Coaching gymnastics is easier. I think its that there is a level of discipline you can expect even at 5 in a gym….but on the field running after a ball with 8 kids….nah there is none of that. We try to have Jonathan there during the practice and Games when possible to help as I really cant leave the field when the game is going on….Im literally directing the kids and yelling instructions and helping them the entire time. While on one hand I love it, I really do! It’s a huge challenge to have Tristan struggle so much. Ive learned that perhaps team sports is not in Tristans future. He gets very frustrated by loosing( there is no win or loose at this stage yet) or doing poorly, or someone else not playing well etc. Im thinking individual sports such as karate, swimming, tennis etc might be better for him. He hasn’t developed self control that is needed to play team sports and I don’t want to set him up for continued failure, or fighting with others when he does loose control, so we will look into something else going forward. I want for him to have success and develop self esteem and as a parent its important to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in our children and develop their individual talents and I feel this isn’t his strength. Im glad we have tried it tho!  I do think its been a good experience for Tristan hes had a good time despite having me as his coach, and theres been a few fun moments for him im sure! And trust me…in all my years of coaching kids, and being around sports, you can tell which kids are really talented, which kids aren’t, and which kids are forced by their parents who really shouldn’t be there- so I think we will try something else for him next year….. Anyway just a few more weeks and then we are done for the Fall…
( hats off to my incredible father in law Carl for taking these pictures they are so amazing! Thanks Carl!)