Bring me back to the days when the “Green Mean Fighting Machine” was the name of every green team, and orange slices were the highlight of every practice. When it was okay to ask for a water break 15 minutes into an hour long practice, and tie dye shirts with pink socks were acceptable.
I have always wanted to rewind and enjoy those years all over again, but those days have come and gone for a soccer player my age, or so I thought. Although I can’t play on an under eight AYSO team, my best friend, Lily Seedman (‘12), approached me about an email she received from a coach. Coach Peter is a very enthusiastic trainer, but explained that he didn’t have the technical skills to help his young players continue to improve.
We jumped at the opportunity to coach.
A day later we were asked to join the team, self proclaimed “The Great Green Soccer Players”, at Eleanor Pardee Park. We showed up 20 minutes early like we do to all practices – no one was there. We were worried we went to the wrong field so Seedman pulled out her Iphone and rechecked the email, everything seemed to line up except the no-show little girls soccer team. We decided to take a seat on a grassy hill and put our cleats on in the hope that everyone seemed to be running late. On my team starting from sixth grade if a player arrived less than ten minutes early they were considered late, this under eight girls team handled it a little differently.
Right on time, a dad with his daughter came riding down the hill on separate bikes. Her bike streamers matched the bow in her hair and the swish on her cleats. The dad Peter, came off of his bike first and introduced himself as the coach as his shy daughter, Pippa, hid behind one of his legs. The players seemed to just keep coming in from different parts of the park.
Coach Peter blew his whistle and the little girls jogged in and took a knee. As the coach made announcements and devised a plan for the hour long practice, half of the team was picking grass while the other half was just picking their noses.
Pippa asked us to show her some tricks, we decided to do some tricks with the ball in the air, Seedman popped the ball up with her right foot and the whole team went crazy. Before we had even started doing our tricks, the girls were in awe. The smallest girl on the team had barely mumbled a word, but by the end of practice she was clinging onto one of my legs as I was walking away, begging us not to go. Pippa ran up and gave us both big hugs; in her eyes we are superstars. In the eyes of our league, we are simply just another player.
By the end of the hour each player had given us at least three hugs each, we were on top of the world. Like always, at the end of practice we put our hands together and cheered “Great Green Soccer” as loud as possible.
Helping little kids, doing what we love, and not to mention a little ego boost – we couldn’t ask for more.
