12:38am 3/17/15

Sidenote, did anyone catch the ATCQ reference in the title of this post? Aside from Outkast, ATCQ gets my vote as best hip-hop group of all time. Can anyone name the album the reference is found on? Leave it in the comments section to test your hip-hop knowledge. 

The previous four sentences have NOTHING to do with this post. 

I’m up late with a little nervousness tonight. In less than 24 hours (at 5:30 pm to be exact) I begin my under-10 girls youth soccer coaching career. It’s spring league so it’s not super serious (fall season is MUCH more serious) but never the less I will be coaching 11 girls, 10 of whom I have never met in my life. Maya, my daughter being the one child I know personally and have coached in basketball and softball previously. 

   3 weeks ago, I could barely spell soccer. I only knew the game cause non-Americans take it so dang seriously. Basically anybody outside the USA treats soccer like I do Alabama Football. (Roll Tide). I never want to feel like a fool so I knew just enough to carry on a decent conversation. 

Maya really wants to play, and then she asked me to coach and what was I gonna do….tell my daughter no? Then to top it off the Madison AYSO league was running low on coaches so in order for her to play they had to open another team…that needed a coach. Talk about destined for this. So for 3 weeks I have been on a soccer crash course..youtube videos, coaching dvd’s, hell I even talked to a Mexican and a Jamaican this past weekend about the game. The Jamaican dude really helped…he also gave me a tip on what was missing in my homemade jerk chicken recipe which I equally appreciated as much as the soccer tips. 

It has rained for nearly 10 days straight so we missed ALL our practices last week. However I thanked mother nature cause that gave me more time to be prepared. Its finally sunny and dry here in Huntsville. We practice twice this week and have our first game on Saturday, March 21st. Not enough time to go from scratch, to game ready in my opinion…but the weather begged to differ. 

Tonight I am up rehashing my notes and my plan for my first practice. How do I want to introduce myself to the team? How tough am I on my own kid….How tough can I be on other peoples kids in a sport I know nothing about? What drills do we run first? How do I explain formations when its my first time seeing them? The questions I’m asking myself are endless. I can handle us not doing well on the field due to talent or another team having superior skilled or athletic kids…but I cannot handle me failing the girls because I was unprepared, uneducated and thus out-coached. 

Send prayers up…. and if your near Dublin Park around 5:30pm Tuesday afternoon…we’re on Field 9. 

1:10am 

-Tee