Coach Jogger

Two of the Little Joggers are playing recreational soccer this summer. It's a fairly casual thing. They practice once a week, and have games twice a week, which is just the right ratio for the eight-year-old, anyway.

Today, the medium Little Jogger's coach had another committment, so old Dad stepped in to take up the slack. This is much tougher than I thought.

For one thing, I can't remember all their little names. Other than my own son, I didn't know one of them before last week, when I went to their second game. For another, the other team showed up with just six players (we play seven to a side), so we had to loan them one. I kept forgetting who we had loaned them. And then one of their players got tired and had to come out, so we loaned them another one. And, of course, at half time, we switched the loaners.

Of course, everyone wanted to play forward all game. So the one player I had on the sidelines (whoever it was) was always pestering me to go in at forward. And every break, everyone wanted to switch to forward. I had thought I would set up a rotation, but with people switching sides and everything, it got too complicated.

In any case, we scored four goals, and they only scored one, so we won. I don't know what we would have done if they had won with two of our players. I don't think that the standings really count for anything.

I'll be happy to welcome back the real coach.