It’s such a bittersweet moment when I put my team in the goal one last time to give away the season awards. Some seasons, I just want to go home and forget the season happened and other seasons I walk away thinking what if. This season was a little different. I walked away from this season, wishing we could keep going.

The downfall of coaching recreational leagues is that your team does not really gel as a team until neat the end of the season. Many times, they may never gel at all, and you have just a team of people that may or may not make some wins. I am not a superstar coach, and my daughter is not a superstar YET. She is working on that, and this season saw such a growth by her.

As far as the team itself goes overall, it was a pretty strong team. We had a couple of soft spots and a few issues, but mostly, the season was successful as far as the kids go. The kid I identified as the weakest link and spent a bunch of time coaching up ended up getting it and trying hard and being a strong member of the team. I always have that one or two kids that practice strong but don’t have the game yet, and you have the ones who practice poor but play out of their minds. It is an inevitable fact of coaching.

Honestly, I am super happy with how the team turned out this year. I’m a little bummed I missed a few kids from past teams this year, and I think if a couple of the kids take practice seriously this summer, my fall team might not lose a game.

Ellie had a great season. You would never know listening to me on the sideline. I am always on top of her, but she needs it. Tonight, she actually impressed me and showed me a soccer move. She stopped a ball kicked in the air with her right and then took a shot with her left foot. She also was in place for a quick putback she missed tonight, but the fact she was there was awesome. I’m super happy where she is and think this summer she would improve enough to where I can take a superstar into the season and win with her.

I now get to turn my attention to a bunch of 6 year olds and baseball. I am already looking forward to the fall season and can’t wait to get a new team going. I really just love teaching kids how to play soccer. I don’t do it for the accolades, especially since I don’t win. I don’t do it so my kids can be striker because she isn’t. I do it because I know I’ll be a present coach for my children, and that means I will be there for a whole team no matter what. So on to the next adventure this year as spring soccer adventure ends.