I got roped into coaching my daughter’s soccer team this year.  I have been team manager for her teams throughout the years but never tried my skills at coaching.  I decided that since no on else was stepping up to the plate I would give it a shot. 

In our community the coach is responsible for a lot.  We have to provide our own equipment aside from the goals and the field.  This endeavor ended up costing me probably close to a couple hundred dollars in equipment.  As a coach we have to keep all the parents informed about the practices and game times and locations etc.  I ended up with all 1st year players except for my daughter who has played for about 5 years.

We had practices twice a week to start and then the last month of the season I cranked it up to 3 times a week, Monday Wednesday and Friday for 90 minutes.  That barely seemed like enough time to get everyone organized into doing drills and scrimmages and away from doing special hand shakes, cheer leading, and general goofing off. 

I read a couple of books and watched a few youtube videos to get some ideas.  I also made up some drills of my own.  The girls all really had a great time with it and it was nice to see their progression in skills throughout the season.  I have heard from most all of the parents and it seems like we will have the same team next year and that’s a great thing.  I really think that keeping the girls together will help build their skills and build upon our already prospering team.

In our community the coach has to go basically on a scavenger hunt to gather things for the season and throughout the season.  I had to go to one community member’s house for the uniform pick up.  Another’s for the player cards.  I had to meet with another coach to get the striper for the field because we were responsible to line our own fields before the home games.

I would have liked if the league could have prepared me for some of these tasks.  It was also difficult working with other people’s schedules in order to gather all of these items in a timely fashion.  Not everyone was home when I was ready to come pick things up which in turn can make a coach appear to be unorganized when really it’s the league itself. 

In leagues I have worked with in the past there is a central office where you would go to get all of these things.  I liked that set up a lot better.  Oh well, it all worked out I guess and now I know what I’m in for next year.

No related posts.