I confess. I do not get sports. I do understand winning (as anyone in an argument with me will find out right quick!). But let's face it. A career in sports is just not gonna be available for a whole lotta kids. But a whole lotta kids, a whole lotta parents, and a whole lotta coaches sure to seem to think so!
JoJo decided she wanted to play soccer this year. Stunned her father and I because she's not really a try-something-new kind of gal. But soccer involves a lot of running and her little friend Claire was going to do it with her. Figured she'd get a lot of exercise and get some girl-bonding at the same time (and Mom wouldn't have to figure out "something to doooooooo"). In Georgia, 8th graders can play up on the JV team for the school in their attendance zone. Our high school didn't have enough girls interested for both a varsity and JV team so the coaches asked J and C to talk to their friends. I still don't know how they did it. 8th grade girls are notorious for not liking to exercise, look dumb, or exert themselves in anyway. But they found six other friends to try out. So every day for the past two months has either been a practice or a game.
This is where I have my difficulties. On the team, there were only three girls that had played before. So it's a "young" team both age-wise AND skill-wise. Basic skills are taught, of course, during practice. But putting it all together and becoming a better soccer player? That's where time on the field during a game is needed. But the coach wants to win so he only plays the girls that either get it/semi-get it. But the team is really bad so it really doesn't matter who is on the field, they're gonna lose. But the coach thinks he knows all and doesn't really care about the benchwarmers. But the girls want to play...
Now, again, I am NOT sports-minded at ALL. But it seems to me that if you want to build a program that will get girls to come out each year (so you don't have to rely on the girls begging and pleading with their friends to join), if you want to instill a love and passion for the game, if you want to have an actual TEAM, you've got to give everyone some playing time. You've got girls that didn't want to be on the team in the first place but got talked into it. They've paid their fee. They've put in the time on the practice field and now? They are freezing on the side of the field on the bench being told time after time that they aren't good enough. And just in case they didn't know? They've got the coach yelling, "I know you are on the bench! You see that team on the field? They are the ones who made a goal!"
But then I don't know much about sports...
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