Soccer Mom

8-25-10




Although I am pleased that I now have time to write about my soccer mom meeting, I am not thrilled that the reports yet again are jacked up this morning.



First off, I felt incredibly old. The two ladies who were coach and team mom seemed like they were way younger than me. They probably were not, but I just felt wrong. The best way to describe it would be like meeting the cool girls and wondering if they would let you in to their click.



The coach was very nice, but Ken was quite put off when she said she didn’t want to be a coach and that the AYSO commissioner kind of begged her since they were short so many coaches. I had on my flower blinders and just only saw happy across the board because I was trying so hard to not a) take over, and b) just enjoy being a part of the system.



The coach and team mom knew each other from the year before. Their boys even played on the same team, which is why they were together again. This seems good and bad at the same time. On one hand, I love that they already kind of know the system. On the other hand, I did feel like I was intruding on their fun friend time.



Here was the most shocking thing to us. The team only has 4 kids on it! Turns out, in this age group they try to have only 4 kids. As I had mentioned before, they only have like 45 minutes of playing time. 20 practice and 20 game and 5 extra in there somewhere.



The coach’s son, whom I will refer to as Mr. Bossy Pants from here on out, was very nice to Bobby. In fact, they seemed to bond pretty quickly, which was cool. Mr. Bossy Pants little friend, Joey, showed up and you could tell who was in charge of that friendship. But Joey didn’t seem to mind.



Luis, the quiet one, was the only kid who just didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Bobby, accompanied by his Dax shadow, played with Mr Bossy Pants and Joey. They were wild. It was kind of cool, though.



The boys were asked to sit down and come up with a team name. Asking 5 and 6 year olds to make a decision like this was probably not wise. Mr. Bossy Pants of course starts barking out names he has decided on. Luis, Bobby and Joey simply laughed and agreed to whatever he wanted. The boys were told that the minute they came up with a name, they could have some tokens to go play in the game area. After about 2 minutes of deliberation, the name was chosen. The Shadows was on the table. So the boys went and played.



Ken let me kind of take the lead on this one and he went with the kids while I pow wowed with Coach, Team Mom and Luis (who is Luis’s daddy). The first item brought up was the team photo site. AYSO has teamed up with Shutterfly. They are giving all the teams a page in which we can share our pics and videos of the team all in an easy place. I was already taking pictures. This allowed me to be tapped for the photo site. Yes, I managed to get my volunteer time into something I already was planning on doing and what I enjoy! YAY!!!!



Snack schedules will go out, picture day was mentioned and field day plans came up. The coach was mostly worried about us being on time. I am cool with that. We are always early, so I think we win.



We got pizzas and I had to go and find Ken and the boys since with our new phones we have not come up with loud enough ring tones to hear in an arcade. I took Bobby since I needed him to sit with his team since Mr. Bossy Pants had decided on at least 3 new names and they needed to agree on one. I sat at a different table, but close to Bobby since he was getting all nervous sitting with his team. He started a shy streak which made me frustrated. Ken and Dax were not coming to eat, and it was already late. I went to go get them, telling Bobby to stay with his team. He flipped out. I told him he would be fine and I headed off. Next thing I know, I have a Bobby at my side in tears. Sigh. I was frustrated that I had to find Ken and Dax in the first place, but now I had sobby child.



After some more pressured deliberations, the kids settled on a name. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you, The Red Bulls! Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled, either. But their team color is red, and they liked it.



Dax started melting as it was almost 8:30 at this point. He wanted to sit with the team, but I really wanted Bobby to have team time. Dax didn’t understand why he wasn’t the team. When I wanted to take pictures of the team, Dax insisted on being in the shot. Super frustrating.



When I got home, I felt icky. I felt light headed and nauseous. My stomach felt fine, though. I think stress and indigestion played a part. I did eat pizza way later than I am used to. I finally fell asleep well after 11.



Ok, reports are good, so I am off to work on those.