You could call it odd or strange as it’s definitely not the norm, but I think unorthodox best describes it.
My first indication that something was indeed amiss was when I received the letter. In the letter he welcomed my son to the team, introduced himself as the coach, listed his phone number, and indicated that he would be contacting us soon.
After reading and rereading the letter, I carefully placed it with the other mail requiring further action or attention. And I thought to myself, “A letter from the coach, how odd.” When my son has participated in sports in the past, the coach or assistant coach generally calls us to inform us that we are on their team.
* * * *
A week later he arranged for a parent/team meeting to go over the practice and game schedules and any other miscellaneous information we should know. I pulled the youngest son away from his friends and spring break fun, to travel across town to the team meeting. When we arrived ten minutes early, I noticed a group of parents standing together near a group of children that were kicking soccer balls around a makeshift field. Now, we had been told this would be a meeting only—not a practice, so my son was not wearing the proper protective gear. But they were the only group of parents with soccer kids, so I thought this must be the team.
We approached the group and I noticed that the parents were all standing together, but no one was speaking. The tall man in the center turned around and I saw he was holding a clipboard. He asked my son’s name and instructed him to hit the field sans protective gear. I commented that I had understood that they would not practice, but that this was to be a parent meeting. He confirmed my suspicions, but thought the children could practice while waiting.
When he finally addressed the team’s parents, I was surprised to learn that he does not have a child on the team. He’s coaching because he wants to coach. He mentioned that his father was a professional soccer player in Mexico and that he will be helping to coach the children at practice. And it seems that his goal for the team exceeds the current soccer season, which we signed our children to attend, as he announced plans of shaping our children into soccer champions and entering them into a tournament across town. He then passed out the paperwork we will need to complete for the tournament in early summer just a little more than two months from now.
Also, he gave us three options for the practice schedule. In past team situations the coach normally informs the parents when he will be able to hold the practices and we do our best to get our children there regularly and on time. With three options to choose from, of course, there was much discussion and debate among the parents before someone commented that it’s impossible to find a schedule that will be compatible with everyone. After nearly an hour, we finally agreed on a schedule and the coach informed us that if our child arrives one minute late for practice, he or she (the child) would run laps. I wondered if the parent, instead of the child, shouldn’t be the one to run the laps, but kept my thought to myself. And nobody asked what the penalty would be for skipping practice.
As we drove home from the meeting, my son and I discussed his new coach. We agreed that the coach and the circumstances of the meeting were, indeed, strange. Because we learned that two of this week’s three practices take place during spring break, we then changed some of our movie watching and mall running plans.
* * * *
We arrived right on time for our first practice. I abandoned my normal book-reading routine, in favor of watching the show practice.
The practice lurched off to a bumpy, but normal, start as the coach and his father had difficulties capturing the undivided attention of all 14 children. After a few minutes, they formed the children into two lines. Two by two, just like Noah’s ark, the children followed the coach’s dad across the field. He led the small formation around the rectangular soccer field several times first at a walk and then at a jog. He then added arm movements and they “swam” across the field for one lap and high-stepped another. He led the children through variation after variation of leg and arm movements for a good 15 minutes.
They stopped just when I was beginning to wonder if they would touch the soccer ball during this practice. And it was quite the site to see. I noticed that parents at the neighboring playground couldn’t help gazing over at our odd looking team. We also captured the stares of a nearby soccer practice already in session.
It was a very strange practice. It was very unorthodox, compared to the practices we had experienced or observed from other teams in the past.
But as the practice continued, I noticed that the children were now listening and following directions. That’s when it occurred to me that the strange warm-up routine was really an exercise in following direction. They then sailed through four different soccer drills achieving more in this single practice than the combined practices of the team my son was on in the fall.
On the way home, my son chatted excitedly about his team and the coach. When I asked him what he thought about the coach now he answered, “He’s tough, but I like him.”
And I decided that unorthodox might be a good thing.
