This was to be her daughter's first year playing organized sports. They say that soccer is the sport to play for children to be on equal footing in a coed environment. At first she was just going to register her daughter in the league and let them determine which team she would be on.
The more she talked to her friends, the more she realized that the best opportunity for her to have fun while playing and possibly even score was to have the right coach. She didn't know whom to request or what to look for. One afternoon while talking with the girls over a glass of wine, they explained what to look for. They had older children who had gone through sports before.
The things that they told her to consider were not the things she might normally be looking for from a coach. The more she heard the more it made sense. This wasn't about winning and losing, it was about having fun. Wasn't that what the brochure said. Better yet, if there was a possibility of scoring.
She went home that evening and thought about the options. Having been involved in the school system and the community, she knew many of the potential coaches. There were a few women and but mostly dads. She took the perspective that her friends had offered and thought about which would be the most patient, have stamina for the task, be somewhat aggressive and be focused on the value of scoring? As she reflected on the options, she thought she knew which coach to request.
At league registration, she and her daughter brought the completed form to the table. Many of the coaches were at the table collecting the forms. As she waited in line, she was surprised by how pleasant many of the coaches were to all the people in the line. It was particularly interesting how they seemed to volunteer more readily to coach some kids more than others.
As she made her way to the line, she noticed that several of the coaches seemed to jockey for position to take her registration packet. She realized that she had on a tank top and shorts, but these guys acted like they were on testosterone overdose. It did make her feel good to see these grown men fawn over her. That was until they saw that she had specifically requested a coach already.
The coach wasn't there so she didn't have a chance to meet him until the practices started. The first few practices were centered on skills β running, dribbling and passing. She spent the practices watching him. He was good with the kids and the kids seemed to like him. While she didn't know much about the sport itself, she knew what her friends had shared with her and she was learning as she watched.
Each week the kids seemed to improve their abilities. That is most of the children but hers. Her daughter practiced and improved but she didn't seem to have the aggressiveness that she needed to get out there and score. Each week she attempted to gather up the courage to talk to him about the same subject without being intimidated or embarrassed. Maybe her daughter got this from her mom.
One week as she waited for practice to end, she stood on the sidelines. Nearby were some coaches who were waiting for the field to practice with their teams. They must have not realized that she was so close. She didn't hear everything, but she caught part of the discussion of the Fantasy League that the coaches had compiled. This in itself wasn't eye opening; fantasy leagues are popular among men. There are web sites dedicated to the various fantasy leagues for almost every sport. It was what they called their league. It was the MILF league.
Her friends had mentioned the term that afternoon. She didn't believe that the MILF league was really something that went on. She wrote it off as a suburban myth dreamed up by the other moms. Now there was not disputing it, the fantasy league was real among the coaches.
This wasn't it. Her jaw dropped when her daughter's coach walked to the other coaches and began talking. It was again obvious that they didn't know she was close by. Clear as day she heard her name mentioned. She couldn't hear everything after that, but she could tell that her daughter's coach was adamant about something. As she saw the two coaches walk toward the field, her face lit up when she heard them yell to her daughter's coach, "Fine, don't make the trade."
Two days later was the first game. They played showing some glimpses of passing and scored a few goals. As is usually the case, there is very little defense. The aggressive ones seem to score more. The team did all right. Her daughter seemed to dawdle behind the other kids and generally avoided the ball.
As the next practice came on Friday evening, she decided she needed to get more into the sport. She had figured the best way to do this. After practice, she approached the coach to discuss assisting on a program to help develop her daughter's skills more. He needed a little time to finish some things and he would be over to talk more.
A few minutes later, he came back as the kids were on their way home. He asked about her daughter. "Where was she?"
She explained that her idea was for her to better understand the sport herself and then work on skills during the week when there were no practices. Sounded like a sound plan to him, made sense. Besides he had time, his son had gone to a birthday party for the evening and was already gone. He had a little time to give her what she wanted.
She was dressed for the workout as she had come from the gym before the practice. She still had on her shorts and was wearing a tank top with a towel draped over her shoulders. That fall evening was unseasonably warm. While her work out had been done over an hour before she still had a shine from her earlier workout.
He asked what she would like to work on. She explained that she had a limited knowledge on how the game was played. She went on to suggest that maybe there was an opportunity to work on how to be more aggressive getting the ball to the hole. She asked how she might be able to learn more about getting through the defenses in order to score more.
She had played a little sports in school years ago and took the ball. Could they start on how to be more aggressive and attempting to score? He asked if she would like to try to score on him. She gave a subtle nod of approval and tossed her hair back and began to dribble toward the goal. She tried to get through his defenses but to no avail. He seemed to close in to her space and steal the ball.