Eric Bailey's

Well, I always saw myself eventually doing this. Just as I thought I would always like to be a clown, or a minister, or drive a Tercel. I always thought that at some point in my life I would coach kids. Not that I have been a great athlete or a committed athlete with a wealth of experience to pass on, but I do enjoy sports and do have ideas and information and skills to pass on to children as they play. That said the coaching that I will be doing at this point is not so much coaching as child-herding. I managed to get my younger son onto a soccer team late by agreeing to coach (a ploy they have so that they can get enough coaches for the teams).

I remember when my older son played and I thought of the dedication of the coach that this person cared so much that they would volunteer and spend that little extra time to make this happen for the kids. Now I know the truth is they likely were disorganized and failed to get their child registered in time so they had to coach to get their child into the league. Kind of funny.

When my older son played, my younger son watched and wanted to play too. The funny thing is that at that point although he was too young to play, he was more prepared to play. He understood the game better than his brother and he wanted to compete. We'll see how it goes now that he can play. I suspect that he will enjoy himself. One parent, when my older son played, paid their child for every goal they scored. This did not amount to a lot of money, but it was supposed to be a motivator to a child who wasn't overly motivated to play. I don't think I'll be doing that, it would probably break the bank (or at least the bank of dad). In a couple of weeks I will start posting about the team and how it is doing, and probably how wonderful I do as a coach.