Soccer Underdog

 Rachael was excited to play soccer this year and after winning the championship last year her hopes were high.  But from the start of the soccer season, Rachael's team was disadvantaged. They had a hard time finding coaches for the Under 12 league so team assignments were late. The coach that her team was assigned, backed out at the last minute. His daughter in-law stepped in and struggled to get Team England organized prior to the first game. She was able to get a practice together and happily there were a number of athletic players on the team. Rachael volunteered to play goalie. The league requires that players are in goal for a maximum of one half, so Rachael got a good balance of goal and field time. Team England won their first game.

   Ms. Kimberly, the head coach, was incredibly sweet and encouraging, but also soft spoken. The team wound up with another volunteer coach, and we were encouraged that she knew the game well and had a lot to teach the girls. Coach Janet's method and style was very aggressive and negative, not the casual encouraging style that Rachael was used too. Rachael didn't like being yelled at, and became a reluctant participant. We didn't like coach Janet's style either but we encouraged Rae to learn what she could and not to take her personally. It was difficult and Rachael stopped wanting to go to practice.

  At one practice Rae shot the ball on goal prior to the prescribed number of passes because they had moved so far forward. Coach Janet shook Rae by the shoulders and yelled at her asking Rae if she had a brain. Rae was of course offended. I didn't witness this but I mentioned it to the head coach the next game and she said she would talk with Coach Janet. I couldn't blame Rae for not wanting to go to practice, and  if weather was questionable we let her miss practice more than we would have otherwise. Rae was still eager to play the Saturday games. Team England played well but wound up tied or losing by a single goal for the rest of the season.

    They play a sudden death tournament at the end of the year. The head coach did not communicate with the team at all during the year and the families relied on each other for info. We hadn't received any tournament info on the Thursday prior to the Saturday playoff game so we were left wondering when we were scheduled. Luckily Jim and I were on another team's email list and we got the schedule and Jim forwarded it to the other families. We were lucky that we had just enough girls to play the first tournament game on Saturday.

     Team England played really well and despite Coach Janet getting a yellow card for using expletives on the sideline they won in over time. This meant they played in the 2nd round on Sunday morning. That game (with another yellow card) was also tied at the end of regulation time and I was torn that I had to head home to host Magaly's baby shower. They stay tied in overtime and went to penalty kicks. Team England triumphed again. Jim and Rachael came home to a house full of women to share the good news. They ate some lunch and then headed back out for the Championship game. I was sad to miss the championship game, which they won in overtime.

      Coach Janet redeemed herself in Rachael's eyes when she invited them all to the coffee/icecream shop that she owns and treated them all to smoothies. I am so glad that Rachael stuck with it and that even though it was a difficult season, it would up very positively.

Field Hockey Optimism

Emma played field hockey for the 2nd year, on a team of 7th and 8th graders in our local rec league. Some of the girls are very good and play throughout the year, but the rest are like Emma and do this casually. Our town has a handful of teams with mixed skills levels. The issue is that we play teams from other areas that have had leagues for a long time with lots of girls with lots of skill.

I had forgotten what an optimist our oldest was, but as I watched her go through this field hockey season it became obvious. Emma's team won one game and had a few close games, but wound up out-played and losing, but the majority were blow-outs. After each game Emma would be frustrated but also confident that her team could have won. When she gets on the field she gets out there to win, and if they lose she wants to get back out there and try again.

Yes, Molly it that much taller than Emma!

Emma really enjoys playing and likes being on a team. This year she was especially glad to be on a team with her good friend Molly, who lives across the street. Neither of them was a star of the team but they held their own and improved as the year went on. Emma seems to have a sense of her potential as a good player and I think if we were able to really commit to the sport that she could excel. But with everything on her plate something has to give. She already had piano, scouts, and religious ed on her schedule when she joined field hockey and therefor could only make it to one practice each week instead of both. It was tough to watch them experience some of the bigger loses ( 0-6, 0-5, etc.) and sometimes it was hard for Emma to acknowledge that some of these teams were just better than they were and it had nothing to do with a bad call or fluke goals. Emma just believes that it is always possible for them to win. I wondered though if Em realized that these teams run regulary and practice frequently, and should be given credit for their effort.

Right now I don't think Emma connects the fact that hard work really makes an impact and contributes to the likelihood of success. I hope that as she matures she will pair her optimism with the industriousness to do the work to help ensure that the could becomes more probable.  As she decides what activities to stick with I hope that she'll get to experience the sweet reward of putting in the effort and have it pay off. So many people fall victim to cynicism in the face of frustration, I pray Emma holds onto her undaunted optimism. It is refreshing.

Halloween 2010

I don't know what it is but we really do enjoy Halloween around here. Costume disscussions are a year round topic, with some ideas way more practical that others. I love making costumes but the Fall is a crazy busy time of year for us so we usually recycle or purchase some costumes and then we make others. This year Bridget was all about Princess Tiana so that was decided way ahead of time. Megan wasn't sure what she wanted to be but on an eartly Oct. trip to Target she spotted an Egyptian costume she liked and we picked it up. 2 down 2 to go.

Rachael expressed her desire to be a garden knome, which I thought was unique and doable. At the beginning of October she got it in her head that she had to be short to make it look believable and came up with the idea that she must walk on her knees to achieve this.  I told her no and Jim told her no and that we would come up with something else. We had the most ridiculous conversations about the danger of steps and just awkwardness this would cause. She finally relented and then insisted she would squat.  Our answer again was no. After about two weeks of frequent contentious conversations with her about this a co-worker suggested putting boots at her knees and greenery on her lower legs. Then the challenge was to make it happen.

We all made a run to the fabric/craft store and found green material for Emma's Kermit costume neck frill and feet, white hair type material for Rae's beard, and a leather look alike material for her boots and belt, plus felt for her hat. We had 1 1/2 weeks until they needed to be done so each night I put in a little bit of planning or sewing time. There weren't any patterns but everything turned out pretty well and I only had a few seams to adjust. Safety pins also came in really handy. Jim used them to attach the greens to Rachael's pants and she was happy with how it turned out.

Emma won most creative costume at scouts and the costume was so comfortable that she enjoyed wearing at all day in school on Friday. Bridget, dressed as Princess Tiana, and I went to the Elementary school to watch Meg and Rae in the parade. When 4th grade came by Rae and her friends took Bridget with them. Bridget loved the attention. After the whole parade went by I went up the Rae's classroom at get Bridge. Bridge looked really overwhelmed and relieved to see me but also happy to be shown off by Rachael to all of her friends. She and I then went down to Megan's classroom, where Megan set up a chair for Bridge to join her at Meg's desk. They had a great time and Bridget loved that the teacher gave her some Halloween pencils and treats too.

Saturday we ran around like normal but then on Sunday we relaxed to carve pumpkins then share dinner with the Brinks and of course Trick or Treat. We have been spending Halloween with them for the past few years and it has become a tradition that we look forward too. We all went Trick or Treating  to a few houses together and then I walked Emma over a few blocks to meet up with friends. It was a chilly night so I picked up a few layers at the house on my way to meet up with them. Our little ones got in PJ's and we all went to pick up Emma at a friends. It was a really late night for a school night but it was a great night. Plus there is a huge chocolate haul in a bowl upstairs.