Sunday, October 19, 2008

Good thing I'm not famous...

...because I'd have a serious breakdown at all the crazy people that would be bound to say mean things to me in mean ways. I should be posting about Ridge's birthday, actually I should be asleep already, but I couldn't sleep even though I'm tired. My mind was still filled with events of the day and with things I need to do in these next few days and I just couldn't let them go and relax enough to fall asleep. So when Cannon woke up I stayed up and got a few things done and now I'm writing about my soccer experience today and maybe after that is done I'll be able to sleep because the thoughts will have flowed out of my mind, through my fingers and into cyberspace where they can live.

So I coach Ridge's soccer team. I volunteered to do it because no one else was able to. There is another dad who helps out but I'm the supposed head coach. I'm not fabulous at all, not very well organized when it comes to putting kids on and off the field, and I'm not prepping the boys for select teams, but I think they are having fun. The team we played today was very well organized, it looked like 3 coaches (each team has 8 boys) and one of them was very serious about the team. It was quite intimidating to watch their regimental warm-ups, goalie coaching, and the coaches all wore sun glasses and track suits, not matching. We were the home team which means that we supply the ball, goal posts and ref for the game. I only got there 10 minutes early, not impressive to their coach.

The incident that I've been trying to wash out of my brain was this: game is going on, our players are down by their goal, close to scoring. Their goalie went down for the ball and our players still tried to kick the ball though they didn't kick the goalie. Well their coach went crazy, yelling at me from across the field. Finally I yell back, "I'm sorry!" and he kept yelling something so I went to stand by one of the dads on the team who was bigger than he was. I didn't look at him for the rest of the game. And get this, he didn't walk through the line and shake hands at the end of the game, another coach did. He stayed on the sidelines and then when I was picking up the cones and posts afterward I heard this guy complaining to one of the parents. Thus the good thing I'm not famous thing at the beginning. He was a jerk and I know that but I was just shocked that he was yelling at me, like I have been coaching the boys to kick the goalies. The ref probably should have called something but there are no direct kicks and the penalties are so vague and the refs are volunteers who are not trained or paid in refereeing mini-soccer games. We don't even keep official score of the games. There is no off-sides, throw-ins are sometimes not perfect, the goalies step out of their boxes often, these kids are still learning the fundamentals of the game. I haven't covered the rules of "don't crash into the goalie" because it hasn't ever happened before and because this is the first year these boys play with a goalie so we've been giving all of them a chance to learn how to be goalie if they want to, and most of them have wanted to try.

Okay, that's done. BlogWorld, I give thee this post, remove this toxic memory from my brain. No one can make me feel inferior without my consent, it's like water off a duck's back. Dear Comment-Therapist, thanks for reading. And now maybe I'll be able to fall asleep.
ps -- the birthday party was crazy and fun. More tomorrow.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Im so with you..that kind of stuff seriously poisons you. The guy could have laughed it off because after all, they're just little kids and everyone here is ONLY here because they want to give their little ones a chance to practice. It makes it even harder because you are sacrificing a LOT to be there in the first place, you didn't deserve abuse for it. The hard thing for me is knowing that this rude man is my (spiritual coming on) brother -someone I have known for hundreds of years in the pre-earth life..and yet he's forgotten so much that he doesn't see the harm he's doing to his sister. I know it sounds incredibly cheesy but I don't know how else to explain what I was thinking.
Oh! We're going to be in Shoreline today, we'll try to figure out a way to see you all- we'll be going to the Malcoms- lets hang out!!

Torrie said...

people suck! that's all there is too it!
what you need is an ex- wife, and then what some soccer coach says won't bother you so much! see i have it ALLL figured out! j.k!
john and i read that together and thought our comment might make you laugh!
like water off a ducks back!
sorry that happend though, mean people suck!

Anonymous said...

Mean people do suck. I'm so sorry someone was mean to my friend Paige. Want me to go beat him up? Cause I'll do it!

Anonymous said...

Paige,
I'm amazed at this guy's reaction. If he was such a great coach he would understand that one the kids are little and don't know that much about soccer, but also you are to kick the ball until it goes into the net unless the goalie has possession of the ball. He obviously doesn't know soccer as well as you do. Players crash into the goalie all the time, most of the time it is not intentional. If he is not prepared to have contact, he shouldn't have his kids play the game. If he can't control his behavior he shouldn't be coaching. Keep it up. You're making a great experience for the kids.
Dad

Unknown said...

Oh man, I can't imagine anyone yelling at you!! That's awful. Torie is right---people suck sometimes. They walk around with so much anger and they spew it forth at others and ....it's so wrong.

I hope by writing it out that it you were able to let it go. It's never a nice thing to be confronted by meanness.

kent said...

sorry about that. dont get too upset about it. that coach was having a bad day. he woke up realizing that people dont think he's as big of a deal as he thinks he is. tomorrow he will wake up and realize he isnt in high school anymore and that there is more to life than sports. the next day he will wake up and be 90, soon to die and realize he's had a miserable life because he's been a prick the entire time. what a loser.

kelly said...

oh paige. that stinks.
what a meanie-head.
that's beyond crazy that he would blame you for that.
i always try and think about how sad and frustrating mean people's lives must be.
it makes it sting a little less.

Matt said...

I would definitely report the incident to the league. Most volunteer recreational leagues have a written policy that prohibits this type of intimidation tactic. They are also very concerned about ensuring their coaches have a positive experience so that they come back and do it again and this guy was way out of line.

Paige said...

Thanks everyone. It did help to share. There is a coaches meeting this week -- hopefully this guy isn't the head coach -- and I think I'll bring it up to one of the board members. One of the parents on our team said she didn't like this coach, remembered them from last year. Thankfully we only play them once.