“Hey, Coach, can I go in?”
I turned to find a wide-eyed, eager 8-year-old in a soccer uniform staring up at me waiting for a response.
It took my brain a moment to realize that I was the “coach” he was referring to — a foreign concept for someone whose sports career peaked in elementary school while watching butterflies in the outfield.
Yet somehow, with zero coaching experience and limited team sports credentials, I found myself standing on the sidelines coaching a 2nd-grade futsal team on a Sunday morning in March.
My son was playing on a winter futsal team being coached by someone who was very much a sportsperson with a career in sports and previous coaching experience. But the coach couldn’t be at two of the eight games so he asked if another parent would step up and coach.
No one did.
So one day when I was chatting with the coach before a game, he asked me to coach. I may not be a natural athlete but I am a natural people pleaser so I could only say yes.
My son was thrilled. I was terrified.
His coach assured me that all I needed to do was sub out players when they got tired. I could do that, right?
The morning of my first game as coach, I felt nervous and worried that I would screw everything up. Seeing the other team’s coaches with their stern faces and matching jumpsuits didn’t calm my nerves. As they ran their team through precision warm-up drills with multiple balls methodically crisscrossing, my team, with no warm-up ball in sight, was taking turns seeing how high they could touch the wall. I stood by the team bench watching, unable to think of a better way for them to spend their pre-game time.
Eventually, the referee walked onto the court and blew her whistle. Game time.
I took a deep breath and focused on the players, looking for signs of exhaustion while frantically trying to learn the rules of the game.
How do I sub someone out?
Which goal do we score on?
How many time-outs do we get?
The game ended. We won. Amazing.
The morning of my second game as coach, I felt something different: excitement and anticipation. Where did these feelings come from??
During the pre-game warm-up, I found a ball and directed the team to stand in a circle and kick it to each other. That’s gotta be better than seeing how high you can touch a wall, right?
I was more confident this game because of what I learned the last game: I can sub players out at any time during the game, including the goalie. The goal we’re scoring on is the one with the other team’s goalie in it. We get one time-out per half.
The referee walked onto the court and blew her whistle. Game time.
“Hey Coach, you ready?”
I smiled and nodded at the wide-eyed, eager 8-year old looking up at me, no longer confused as to who that was directed to.
Much thanks to and for coaching me through this one.
Great job, Coach Brooke! There are few experiences more exhilarating than jumping right into an unfamiliar role, learning on the fly & surviving. Thank you for saying “yes”! You crushed it!
“The goal we’re scoring on is the one with the other team’s goalie in it.” Lolol this line was so funny.