So Long, Soccer

Brendan was slow to start soccer once we moved to Spokane. I can't say I totally blame him. He didn't know any other boys yet, and would be starting a new league, not sure what it would be like. So, after taking the fall season off, I convinced him to give spring season a try, and a stroke of luck landed him on a team with a good buddy from school named Eli. He was excited to at least know one person on the team.

It was easy to see that things were different than they had been back in Ohio, though. In Toledo, he had had two men coaching his teams over the course of several seasons, and they both recognized Brendan's strengths and played him in positions accordingly. They had personalities that commanded respect, but were also fun and encouraging. That coupled with being on teams with boys all from Brendan's elementary school, it was a really great setup. They would spend their recesses every day playing soccer together, then have proper practices with the coach and team, followed by games where they all felt confident and meshed well.

This Spokane Valley team had a different dynamic, and Brendan was a different player now, too. For starters, they had boys from the middle school AND elementary school, due to the overlapping age range from 11-12 years old. Therefore, Brendan didn't know the majority of the boys and never would interact with them except on the field. Now that Brendan is in middle school, he obviously didn't have recesses any more, so that daily touch on the ball, practice and conditioning he had enjoyed in the past was no longer possible. Then to make things more difficult, the coach chose to hold practices from 5:30-7pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. Those are two of our busiest nights, and not just due to Family Home Evening. Tuesdays are our mutual nights starting at 7pm across town at the church, and since Caleb and I, not to mention Brendan who is a new deacon, all are involved with that, we could not be two places at once. Jake was not always available to help drive, so Brendan would have to make the choice each week either to attend scouts/mutual with us or go to practice, if that was even an option. Then, there were other school events that would come up on Monday and Tuesday nights, as well, so Brendan was lucky to attend just one practice in a week before the game each Saturday. It just wasn't enough practice and conditioning. And he had already been off the field for a year!

This is to say nothing of the coach. Eli's stepdad was their coach. However, being a former Gonzaga soccer player was apparently not enough to qualify him to be a good little league coach. He rarely rotated the boys' positions giving them all equal chances to play and try something new, and didn't bother to find out which positions the boys DID want to play. For whatever reason, he would often bench Brendan for large portions of the game, almost seeming to forget to sub him in, and then would always put him on defense. Brendan thrives in midfield and offense. He HATED being on defense constantly.  I even had Brendan tell he coach that he preferred to play offense and asked him to put him in there, but the coach just placated him with about 2 minutes on offense at the end of a game, just to put him back on defense again the next time. The weird thing about it was that the team positions which the coach seemed to favor putting all the boys in weren't even effective for winning games. The team would lose game after game, only frustrating Brendan more. Not only was he barely having any playing time, when he WAS put in he'd rarely touch the ball the entire game, and then they would lose, too. Add freezing, rainy, windy weather conditions to it, and I had one unhappy soccer player on my hands, and that just broke my heart. He LOVES soccer! And he was really thriving before in Ohio. Now, he was so disenchanted that he just wanted to quit.

Well, today was their last game of the spring season, and as fate would have it the coach couldn't be there due to work, so another boy's father stepped in to help. Armed with that tidbit of information, I told Brendan to go to the stand-in coach and let him know that you'd like to be on offense this game and see what happens. Since he wouldn't have the same prejudices that the actual coach has, I figured that he'd be golden. And sure enough, he was! Bren played offense the entire game, when he wasn't taking a turn on the sidelines, which was minimal. He didn't score, but he touched the ball more times in this one game alone than probably all the other games combined. The team won 4-3 and all the boys seemed happy and content in their positions. Huh. Interesting.

So, at least he ended things on a positive note. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make him chose to play this fall. He told us as we were leaving the game that he had decided not to play next season. He didn't like the team and didn't want to a repeat of this season. Sad. I asked if he would want to try again next spring and he said he'd think about it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

We were still proud of Brendan's efforts in the face of challenges, and hope that the skills and experiences he's had with soccer over the years will be remembered overall in a positive light. He really has a lot of natural talent and it's been a great way for him to discover what he's capable of, make new friends (both times we've moved) and get some exercise outside. We never had delusions of grandeur and professional conquests, but it's been fun. We love you, Brendan!