Swirling Emotions

I, like most people are looking forward to a three-day weekend coming up with Memorial Day on Monday.  However, I am a bit somber since my Mom passed away last October.  Memorial day has an all-new meaning for me this year.  Previous years I would play on Memorial day.  But that's not what I want to talk about right now.  Also, my Dad has remarried a wonderful woman, who is currently recuperating from some rather challenging surgery.  But she is great!  All she does is joke about it, text her kids, and play on-line games with them.

My daughter is pretty good at soccer.  She started out playing city league when she was four, moved up through the 1As, 2As, and is now playing at premiere level for a nationally recognized club.  Before joining the club, she played independently achieving the quarter-finals at State Cup each year, winning tournaments, etc.  Since joining the club, she has a new coach with realistic philosophy.

This year they finished second in state during regular spring play.  Losing by 1 point to the state champion.  The team went to State Cup this last week.  They ended up losing to this same team, but won all their other games.  They went to the semi-finals and faced this team a second time.  They lost by a score of 3-1.  As I sat watching this semi-final State Cup game, a whirlwind of emotions banged around my head.  Two of my daughter's coaches were very vocal about the team stepping it up.  But it seemed the louder they yelled, the worse the team performed.  We scored the first goal in a brilliantly run play.  However the opposition scored right before the end of the first half to tie things up.  The other team scored two more unanswered goals later in the second half to seal the deal.

My daughter's coach has a resume that is a mile long.  She played club, high school, and college ball.  She even played on the USA National Womens Team.  She has the honor of the previous team she coached having all players get college scholarships.  But, she is big league.  She wants to win and will do what needs to happen to be successful.  Prior to my daughter joining this team, she was on an independent team without much turnover.  She had the opportunity to make many very good friends.  Now, playing club soccer, it is much like what I would envision high school soccer to be.

With Club tryouts coming next week, it will be interesting to see what happens.  I have talked to a few of the assistant coaches, and they confide in me that our coach has been on recruiting missions during this spring season.  New blood?  Hopefully - but wait, I can't bear to loose any of the great girls we have on the team.  Club level?  Premier league? Winning????  So enter the swirling emotions!

This morning at work my Manager, who has three boys playing competitive basketball and one daughter playing league soccer, put it all in perspective: I need to realize that my daughter is getting experience whether they win or loose.  I need to enjoy the soccer experience, realizing that I can benefit from the experience as much as my daughter.

I am sure you will see more in my blog about soccer in the future.

Till next time,
Bill