The Greatest 4th, 5th & 6th Grade Girls Soccer Team.

I have a feeling that most of you know that one of my great loves is coaching. I have had the privilege of coaching Stephen, Emily, & Brenna from Kindergarten through 8th grade (Brenna through 5th grade where she is now) in soccer, basketball, softball, and baseball. Although I did my best in all of these endeavors I have to admit that I'm basically a soccer coach. I love the game whether playing it, coaching it, or watching it at any level it's played (pro, college, adult rec leagues, kids, ....).

Well, I am currently coaching one team which is the greatest 4th, 5th, & 6th grade girls soccer team (I am an admittedly biased source for this assessment). Their official name (as dubbed the the girls a few seasons back) is "The Extreme Team," and they live up to it in many ways. This group continues to exceed expectations, and challenges me to come up with ways to keep challenging them. This makes for great joy as a coach, and it's always cool when I see them do things on the field that we've been teaching them. The past couple of seasons we have played against older competition in order have competitive games. They continue to impress while playing at a very high level. The results are evident in that they continue to win they're divisions or they're conference. All right, enough bragging!

I truly love seeing these kids. They give me inspiration, energy, and frankly, a great big smile on my face. Their parents are also a fantastic crew of folks who have certainly stepped up to help out this season. They have adjusted to the coach (yours truly) not being quite as available for the team as usual. It almost seems as though the group has not missed a beat. I'm really happy about this because I really want these kids to have a good experience and to enjoy the "beautiful game."

I need to acknowledge a couple of others that have stepped up in their efforts to keep this team from missing a beat:

First would be my son Stephen.
An added benefit to coaching this team is my son joining me for the past 5 seasons as my assistant coach and "right hand" man. Stephen has had the occasion to take over the team as I was out of town for work or the like. He has proven to be quite the coach himself. This season he has been instrumental in keeping the coaching consistent, the practices organized, and the girls trained. For this I'm thankful and proud.

Second would be the Fantoms (Joe & Susan) who have taken over the administrative duties for the team. This is my least favorite part of running a team! They have taken on the least appreciated part of the work and are doing a great job!

Third, Steve Patterson.
Steve is a friend of mine who has coached many teams in the past for his own kids. He does not have a kid on the Extreme Team, but asked if he could help out. I quickly said yes, knowing that he would work well with Stephen (my son) and is great with kids. The fact that someone as busy as he is, and still willing to volunteer like this says volumes about how people want to help and are willing to step up.

Because of my love of the game, coaching, and the fun of being with the kids, coaching has been very rewarding. However, I don't think I ever realized how much the coaching experience has brought to me. Until I saw how many are willing to help this group of kids continue to thrive, especially when this slightly ailing coach can't be there for them, and how excited the kids are to back on the field, I can now see how much it does mean to me. Very much!

Life Is Really Good!