Ok. So, I'm not a soccer coach (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once)!
It's soccer season AGAIN. Taylor has been playing soccer since she's been 5. Now, she's 21. It's her senior year of college. Since there really is no other "team" to go on to, this is her LAST soccer season.
I'm a little bit bittersweet. Taylor loves the game. She eats, breathes, drinks and sleeps soccer. She plays every opportunity that she gets and then some. She always has. But I hate soccer season. I hate every bit of the drama and heartache that goes with it.
I believe in natural born talent and while Taylor loves the game and is a good player (the mom in me thinks she's the BEST EVER) she's not an Olympic or World Cup caliber player - and she knows it. But she works her TAIL off during practices and games. She was a 3 year letter winner in high school and is a 3 year letter winner in college.
But something happened Taylor's sophomore year in college. I have no idea what. One thing is, they got a new coach that year. Her stats from her freshman year are: Posted one goal. Appeared in thirteen games …Sophomore year: Played in sixteen games and started ten. But the started 10 came early in the season. The 2 games that she didn't play in, were the last 2 and one, the coach didn't even let her travel to.
No one seems to know what happened. The coach suddenly wrote her off as if she didn't exist. Last year's stats: Played in nine games and starting three ... Posted one goal. She was worse her junior year than her freshman year? But how bad? She scored a goal in one of the few games that she got to see the field! And the "leading scorer" on the team scored 6 goals for the entire season! I wonder how many Taylor would have scored if she got to play in all 19 games?
So far this year, she's the leading scorer on the team. The first scrimmage, she scored the only goal. No one on the team has scored since. The first season game was last night. Taylor sat the bench. Never saw the field. And, although only 2 starters graduated last year, the coach started 5 freshman last night.
Now, they have a JV team. I guess I always thought that JV was meant to give freshman and underclassman an opportunity to play together instead of throwing 17 1/2 year olds on a field with 22 year olds after only playing together for a week. Apparently, that's not the case on this team.
One might also think that if you are down in a game 1 (or 2) to 0 that you might want to put the only girl that has scored a goal so far this year on the field.
Hear we go again. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, "It's like deja vous all over again."
I won't be completely heartbroken when this season is over.
