Trying something new

Years ago, this Japanese man in my church relayed to the congregation that it is tradition as a Japanese person approaches 40, that they learn a new talent.  (He had taught himself to play the piano or organ...or both...can't really remember.)  It was something that stuck with me.  And ...I am getting to be that magical age of 40.


Oh, I don't know if I'm really going to have some wonderful new talent over the next couple of years.  But today, I got to try something new.

Refereeing soccer!!

The referee didn't show up and Randy, with a whistle in hand, was approaching all the other dads on our team.  Then I saw him on the other side chatting up that team. At first I thought he was telling the opposing coach that one of our dads would step up and ref. But when I saw that he still had a whistle in his hands....I realized he wasn't getting any takers.  I approached and questioned him...and he asked me to ref the game.

Cautiously, I said okay.  And away we went!

Over all, I did pretty good.  Made one bad call...and went back on it b/c I got confused at the very beginning of the game.  And one call I made a little too early.  I saw that the ball was going to go out of bounds. And when I blew the whistle...wouldn't you know it...that darn ball went into slow motion and didn't cross the line until after I had blew it.  Well...you know, typically, we get a lot of  young kids refereeing...so mistakes are made.   I had to stop the play twice for injured players.  And I gave some encouragement to the other team whose spirits were lagging b/c of the heat, the number of goals scored on them, and the hollering coach who seemed to be MAD and not coaching.  (We are so lucky to have Randy as our head coach!  He's great with the boys and keeps them busy and learning the game.)

I'm really pleased by how I could actually call the game.  Yeah me!  haha  (And during the brief break after the first quarter, I walked over and said hello to a friend on the opposing team so it wouldn't look like there was biased.  And...I stayed on the field during the other breaks too.)

During play...I just bit my tongue. After so many coaching season, I am used to hollering for my players to get into position.  Today, I played the mute.  Boy, did the Firecrackers ROCK!  We tore up that hot field...and won.  Offically...6-1.  (Although, we were so far ahead that when the other team goalie caught the ball but then fell into the net, I didn't have the heart to call it a goal.)  Randy, the head coach, said we had played them earlier in the season and they were really good.  Apparently, we played them on a very cold, very sleety/rainy Tuesday evening and lost to them.  But hey, that was in the beginning of the season. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

It was amazing to see the boys calling for the ball, passing, centering themselves to be in a scoring position.  For the last couple of weeks in practice, they have been doing a drill called "King of the Square."  Basically it's a defensive drill to learn to keep control over the ball when someone else is pushing in on you.  Today, I saw the boys put it into action on their own.

So, I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks after all.  I'm glad to be a stay at home mom...did I mention that today?  I'm glad to be helping out in my kids' lives...and in their sports.

GO FIRECRACKERS!!