Life lessons from coaching

The season was about to start. I was assigned to coach 8 teams.

1 practice a week for an hour, and then a game on Saturday. This booked my schedule from 5:15-7:30 from Monday through Thursday, and then on Saturdays, I would coach 8 games.

As I started to look through the rosters of the teams, I was really excited. Most of my teams were older teams, and I finally got to coach a U12 Girls team (I started coaching girls 5 years ago and hadn’t coach a girls team in 2 years). As I flipped to the last roster, my heart stopped. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe that they had given me a U5 team. I was given seven 4-year olds to coach.

I was terrified. I knew that coaching this team wasn’t going to be easy, and that a lot of patience would be needed. This was a huge problem: Patience isn’t one of those attributes I am known for having. As the first day of practice was approaching, I was getting more and more nervous. I was reading about different drills and activities I could do to keep them engage. I learned that 4 year old have a 30 second attention span and this scared me a bit. I needed to make sure I had a lot of activities for this team, but don’t forget, I also had 7 other teams to coach and improve.

The first day of practice came. It was a Thursday. Parents started to approach the field looking for their kid’s coach.

“Are you Rodrigo?” a parent asked.

“Yes ma’am. Nice to meet you… practice will be on that field” I said as I pointed to the middle of the 3 fields.

And thus everything began. Needless to say, I fell in LOVE with all the kids. I would receive over 30 hugs each practice from the kids. Some of them even brought me some Halloween candy to share with me.

Story

During this time, there was one player, Curtis, who never practiced nor played. Every Thursday and Saturday he would show up and not do anything. Slowly, he would warm up to the team during practices, and usually at the end, he would play for a few minutes, but he never played unless I was holding his hand. And then on Saturday, he would sit on the bench and never played. The cycle was the same week in and week out. I tried to involve him as much as possible. I even (jokingly) told Trent (another player) that he wouldn’t play on Saturday unless Curtis played. Trent tried every week with no avail.

The last practice came and he said he would play if I held his hand. At first I would hold his hand and run, but slowly, I would let go and keep my hand within 5 inches of him as he would try to get a hold of my hand while running and kicking the ball. He was almost playing on his own. I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it! And neither could any of the parents that had been there each week. 

During the last game a miracle occurred. Curtis showed up as usual and I asked him if he was going to play, and he just said “Maybe”. The game started and all of the sudden, Curtis pulls my shirt and says, “Coach, can I go in?”

I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. Without hesitation I said, “Of course! Get in there!”

Realization

At first, I worked really hard on being patient with them. I quickly realized that being patient would be a lot easier if I got to know them. As I did that, I developed a huge interest and love for these kiddos. I would look at them and think of my daughter and future kids at that age. When I did this, it was a lot easier for me to be patient, and help them develop some soccer skills while playing fun games. This led to the players being comfortable around me, and over time, Curtis felt secure enough to go out and play without me holding his hand. The seeds that I had planted and taken care of with Curtis finally laid fruit**, and it was worth every practice and game he didn’t play.

Even thought I was physically and emotionally drained after each practice, it was all worth it.

**Not many coaches get the opportunity to see the fruits of their labor, but I know that those coaches who strive to make a difference and take the opportunity to know their players do make a difference. They may not see it, but those athletes will remember the lessons that coach taught him/her for the rest of their lives.