Originally posted by BassinNole:
Don't forget to teach them the most important thing in soccer, "THE FLOP". make sure they really sell it, roll around on the ground, scream and cry, etc......
You don't have to teach kids that age how to do that, a good number of kids are so pampered already, that looking at them wrong and they hit the ground crying, nevermind a bigger kid bumping into him/her and taking the ball.
We played a team that was stacked (the coach's wife was the commissioner and the it was supposed to be a random draw for players, yea right) and they would beat everyone 15/16-0/1, our last game they beat us 5-1, and the score was pretty much 3-0 for most of the game, a tight game for them. Every kid was supposed to get equal playing time, but in the 2nd half, their lesser players sat on a blanket and played house or something and the coach argued that they didn't feel like playing.
My goal as a coach was to get the kids to enjoy the game and hopefully learn. My goal was that if any of these kids never kicked another ball in their life, that if they were channel surfing and a game was on, that they would stop and watch this beautiful game.
I think I did a good job as a coach, and other than this "super" team", we did well and most of my players scored. I knew we wouldn't score much in our last game against the "super" team, so my next to last game, I had two kids who hadn't scored yet, one was my daughter. I played them at forward and even gave them some extra time on the field to try to score. My daughter wasn't comfortable at forward so I moved her back to defense where she was solid. The other girl scored with 2 minutes left in the game and came running over to me and surprised the hell out of me when she jumped in my arms, and that right there made the whole season worthwhile.
Getting back to my earlier goals, that was the last year that my daughter played, and a few weeks ago I was watching Manchester United and they were winning 1-0. My daughter started to walk past me when she stopped and sat down next to me on the couch and stated that I would be in a good mood the rest of the day if United held on, then she asked me "if Rooney had scored" and that shocked the hell out of me! I knew she knew who MUFC is because I am a huge fan, but knowing who Wayne Rooney was and who he played for surprised me and she told me that she watches with her friends when she goes over their house. I guess my goal of making a fan out of some of them even though they don't play anymore came through!
A little while later, my daughter asked me if I would disown her if she were to like Manchester City and I told her that I most certainly would, but I'd still love her!
Today, my daughter does cheerleading for the local youth football team, and yes, she also cheers for Manchester United!
