Game 2 & An Offer We Might Refuse
Feb. 16th, 2019 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayTook my grandson to his second rec-league soccer game this afternoon. He scored 4 out of their first 5 goals, and a couple after that, in a lopsided, 11-1 win. (They had lost a narrow 7-5 decision the week before in which he scored 3 of his team's 5 goals.)
The games are 7 v. 7 and, for whatever reason, his team had only one sub. Which is not good at any position, but he was at forward again and tends to range the entire field. And given that he's done practically nothing except play video games and text message on his phone for the past 2 years, I expected him to be really gassed by the end of it.
Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be. Ah, the resilience of youth, lol.
On his first break, which was about 10 minutes before the end of the first half, I saw him huddled with the coach--a young, Eastern European-sounding guy--and figured they were talking strategy or whatever. Jason is in sports management at his high school and wants to coach later on, so he tends to do these kinds of things.
But in the car, on the way home, he said the coach had told him he could be playing at a much higher level--which we already knew, but chose not to do--and that one of his jobs at the Sports Centre was to provide individual coaching for kids who had an interest in playing in college or beyond. And would he mention this to his grandfather so that we could discuss it at practice on Monday?
As I MAY have mentioned, lol, this is not our first rodeo. He and I have heard these kinds of things before and should, at least, have a pretty good idea of what they entail in terms of time, money, and personal commitment.
And so I asked if HE was interested, said I'd be supportive if he was, but that HE should take the rest of the weekend to think about whether this was truly something that HE wanted to do.
Which, maybe it will be. But I've been very careful NOT to push this sort of thing because we've been very clear that these first, tentative steps back, towards something that he once loved and then grew tired of doing, were to be solely for the fun of it, for the conditioning, for the love of the sport, etc.
This, the individual coaching, would be a serious step, not to be taken lightly, back into that world of stern coaches and money-driven enterprises and imploring, screaming, sulking parents standing along the sidelines demanding to know WTF they've gotten for their $1500, this season, in training costs alone.
Been there, done that. And pretty sure that neither of us needs it again unless it's for something that rises well above the stink of exploitation, petty elitism, and parental bullying which is now so prevalent in youth sports...
LPK
Dreamwidth
2.16.2019
The games are 7 v. 7 and, for whatever reason, his team had only one sub. Which is not good at any position, but he was at forward again and tends to range the entire field. And given that he's done practically nothing except play video games and text message on his phone for the past 2 years, I expected him to be really gassed by the end of it.
Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be. Ah, the resilience of youth, lol.
On his first break, which was about 10 minutes before the end of the first half, I saw him huddled with the coach--a young, Eastern European-sounding guy--and figured they were talking strategy or whatever. Jason is in sports management at his high school and wants to coach later on, so he tends to do these kinds of things.
But in the car, on the way home, he said the coach had told him he could be playing at a much higher level--which we already knew, but chose not to do--and that one of his jobs at the Sports Centre was to provide individual coaching for kids who had an interest in playing in college or beyond. And would he mention this to his grandfather so that we could discuss it at practice on Monday?
As I MAY have mentioned, lol, this is not our first rodeo. He and I have heard these kinds of things before and should, at least, have a pretty good idea of what they entail in terms of time, money, and personal commitment.
And so I asked if HE was interested, said I'd be supportive if he was, but that HE should take the rest of the weekend to think about whether this was truly something that HE wanted to do.
Which, maybe it will be. But I've been very careful NOT to push this sort of thing because we've been very clear that these first, tentative steps back, towards something that he once loved and then grew tired of doing, were to be solely for the fun of it, for the conditioning, for the love of the sport, etc.
This, the individual coaching, would be a serious step, not to be taken lightly, back into that world of stern coaches and money-driven enterprises and imploring, screaming, sulking parents standing along the sidelines demanding to know WTF they've gotten for their $1500, this season, in training costs alone.
Been there, done that. And pretty sure that neither of us needs it again unless it's for something that rises well above the stink of exploitation, petty elitism, and parental bullying which is now so prevalent in youth sports...
LPK
Dreamwidth
2.16.2019
