GOOALLLLL!

It's soccer season here in Soccer City USA. That means that the local sports' parks are filled with teams of all sizes every Saturday morning. Hundreds of people crowd the sideline cheering on their teams then head off to the Farmer's Market or other games or whatever errands need to get done on a fall Saturday.

And there we are in the thick of things with my mondo bag of soccer ball flung over my shoulder, my team bench, cooler and pop up shelter. In my pocket, I have my whistle, stop watch and line up. It's quite something to get all of my team's equipment from the curb to the field and back again. Literally, every member of the family and sometimes a random passerby's arms are loaded down like sherpas as we haul the equipment onto the sidelines.

This is Maggie's third season playing (and my 3rd year coaching) and she's loving the sport as much as ever. She's requested a soccer themed birthday party, she wrote her first class speech on her favorite sport...soccer, and she often wants to wear her cleats to school on Thursdays just so she's ready for practice, which starts at 5pm. She's off to a great start. She's fast, she's creative, she's aggressive. She's always intuitively understood the game, but now her skills are growing to match her intuition and it's such a joy to watch.

As her mom/coach, I have mixed emotions watching her this year. Now this counts. She's in an age group where the high comp coaches start paying attention. I have to rate all my players at the end of the season, and I know how I'll have to rate her. And while as a coach/mom, it's so exciting to see her develop, it's also a little sad. You see, if those coaches notice her, I don't know how much longer I'll be allowed to be her coach. I know in my heart the best thing in the world for her is to let her play competitively, yet the minute I do...no more coaching for me. Parents are not allowed to coach their kids high comp teams any longer.

Yes, technically, I have the rest of this season and next to coach her. I still have time. But if her season continues on the route it's on in the first two games, I won't be surprised if I get a call this spring for her to try out for high comp a year early. And if that call comes, I'll suck it up and take her out to try outs. It's the right thing to do. She'll love it. And if that call doesn't happen until after next season, that's okay too. I guess I just know it's out there for her...and the coach side of me knows it's probably going to happen. But the Mom side of me wants to hold on as long as possible.