Today was the last game for Will’s soccer team the Earthquakes (I guess mine too, since I helped out Jim K. with coaching and kid wrangling), and what a miserable game it was. We had to play the first game (9 am), and that comes mighty early on a Saturday morning. It was in the 40s and rainy and kinda windy. Only sleet could have made it worse. And we lost and lost very very badly, like zip to 10. That caps off an 0-6 season, one where we played two (maybe three) games we really should have won, and three or four games where we just crushed.
But you know what? The kids really didn’t seem to care a whole bunch, and at this age (under 12), I guess that’s a good thing. This isn’t exactly a super-duper competitive league, and the kids all really seemed to get along great. It was a lot of fun working with/hanging out with the kids and with Jim, and I hope I get a chance to pitch in again in the spring. The way I figure it, I have a little more time this year with my “sabbatical lite” schedule at work, and I think Will is right at that age where it’s still “kinda cool” for Dad to be hanging out and one of the coaches.
Incidentally, in the picture above (there’s a bunch more in this flickr set) is the kids goofin’ a bit, holding up the “L is for loser” hand gesture. Good sense of humor, these kids. One of them was talking to Will about how they had this perfect record, that no one had ever lost all of their games like that. Will said “Oh yeah? I haven’t won a game in two years!”
Well, maybe next year….