Kicking and Screaming

So...it's been a while. Again. Oh well. It's been a busy week here, with coaching starting, astronomy observation sessions going on, and it being bitter cold. Especially while up on the roof until 10:30 at night. Even more so when you've forgotten a hat and gloves. Which I did each time. I'm a moron.

So, as some of you may know, the title of this post comes from the Will Ferrell movie kicking and screaming in which he becomes the coach of a team so that his son can play after Will Ferrell's dad (played by Robert Duvall) benches his grandson and doesn't let him play at all while his team goes on to win the championship. It's been a while since I saw it, but it did have its funny moments, and the usual Ferrell over-the-top antics and yelling, but it was funny at times. Of course, there are the usual stereotypes on the team - the son, who does something amazing to beat the team he used to be on; the short, dorky asian kid, complete with glasses; the giant kid who is 6 feet tall (or something ridiculous like that...), the star Italian soccer players who can't play because their uncle or someone wants them working in their families slaughter-house... - you get the point. And of course, they start off being the worst team ever, but after some yelling, practice, yelling, the team getting a surprise victory, yelling, the Italians making everyone look silly with their amazing skill, yelling, the son becoming angry at the dad, yelling, the Italians not being able to make a game, yelling, the team still pulling out a victory even with all the odds stacked against them, reconciliation, they are ultimately able to finally win the championship game against the "evil" team coached by the grandfather. Mike Ditka stops by for some pretty funny moments as well. Not bad if you've got an hour and a half to waste. Certainly not the pinnacle of entertainment though.

At any rate, the current middle school team that I am coaching doesn't quite compare to this movie. Not only do we not have any Italians, Asians, or really any other ethnicity, but we do have a few players that actually surprised me with their skill. Of course, there are plenty that surprise me with their lack of skill. We're trying to get up to 30 players so that we don't have to cut anyone...cause that would be plain awful if we ended up needing to cut players. We had 25 tonight, with the promise of a few more, so I think we'll be alright.

The first two practices have been ok. We've done the usual stuff just to see how they are with a ball. We'll do the usual toe-tapping on top of the ball, and boxing the ball back and forth between the feet, and then move on to a drill that I did for the last 5 years of my competitive soccer career which involved dribbling the ball in a 10 X 10 square with everyone else and having to keep control and do moves while dribbling, all while touching the ball with every step. It works well to improve your ball control and dribbling ability, if you do it right, since it's definately hard to keep solid control when you're in a small box with 20 other people.

We've also done 3 vs. 3 small-sided games, and a 4 vs. 4 keep-away game to see how they work together, how their sense of positioning is, and how well they can control and pass a ball in tight situations. Needless to say, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in that respect with all but a small number of them. It seems as if many of them don't play any type of competitive club soccer, and that a majority of them haven't really played all that seriously yet. Hopefully we'll be able to help them improve their skills...but there's really only so much we can do in 3 hours a week. We're planning on having a scrimmage in the next couple weeks just to get them in a game and see how they do. It's been fun so far though. Except for how much they talk and joke and don't listen...but I guess that's to be expected from 6-8 graders.

Only time will tell how this team will do together. I guess I figure if we can get the solid players to work together we can work in the people with lesser skill and in the process improve them as well. I'm glad I'm doing this, as I think it will be good experience, and maybe I'll be able to coach more in the future. We'll see how it goes though.