Game 6 (May 10th)

Special thanks to all the kids for doing an exceptional job of making the game fun for everyone! Your positive outlooks, willingness to adapt to all situations and eagerness to allow the other team to have a fun day of soccer truly touches me. You are all great, exceptional kids with kind hearts. Thanks for listening to coach and making soccer fun for us all.

Since we jumped ahead by 4 points very early on, we all practiced kicking with our left foot and passing the ball a lot. Then, when Riley scored again with his left foot seconds later, I implemented the no shots on goal rule. For the record, I am about as competitive as they come. Don’t try to play me in backgammon or Yahtzee – as you will be sorry as I’m a poor loser and an ungracious winner. (I even work myself into a frenzy playing solitaire!!). But I’ve tried to abide by the non-competitive spirit of this league as I think 3,4 and 5 year olds just need to have fun. I strongly believe at this age there should be no losers. What transpired at the end of the game was shocking with the other coach blurting out they won 7-6 due to their positive attitudes. Honestly, I do not keep score at any the games (but I was aware when we went up 5-0 at the beginning which is why we pulled back so strongly and quickly – considering their kids were actually crying on field). I did speak with the coach and reinforced U5 do not keep score and explained to him how our kids pulled back and his comments were not appropriate. I’m not sure he cared, or believed me – but at least I let him know and was able to get it off my chest (I did not fall asleep until 4:30 am that night though as I was dwelling – I’m telling you, I am VERY competitive.)

I hope we can all let it go and not change our team sportsmanship and overall spirit of the game. If we are up by 4 or 5 points and it is clear we need to pull back, I will do it again. Its really the only way to ensure all kids have fun. I realize not all the coaches are as actively promoting this sort of behavior (I know we got creamed one week and the two star players of the team never came out) but we can only control what our team does and the rules this coach follows. I hope everyone supports these decisions for future games.

I do not know what the correct final score was for our game (It sure seemed like we scored more than 6) but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Either way, our kids were winners!

As always Dusty, thanks for doing more than your share of running around on field. I should get this off today! (But might need to pull it out for sympathy later ;-)

Thanks also to Riley’s Parents (Adrian and Katy) for bringing the great bench seating! It worked perfectly! The kids all sat together and paid attention to the game. Where did you get it??

See you at practice!

Coach Jamey