What have I gotten myself into? Part 2

The first half of this saga is here.

I think that the following week was fine. Well, as far as practice went. As team mom, I was working on that snack schedule that I was responsible for. The kids were getting ready for a scrimmage on Saturday afternoon. As it turns out it was the hottest weekend of the summer and the weekend that I went to visit Steph. It's probably a good thing, because Headless Dad called me at the end of the scrimmage to tell me that it was 111 degrees when he got in the car at the end. Yes, they made the kids play in that kind of heat. *

I know that kids play all kinds of sports in all kinds of weather. Football is notorious for this. However, since my kid has asthma it is safe to say that I am a little more anxious about heat and other playing conditions than your average parent. I'm not a freak about it. They have nurses on the field and his inhaler in their bag, but if I had actually been there I'd have been a ball of nerves.

Switching gears a little, have you hung out with 7 & 8 year old boys lately? Might I remind you that they are wiggly. They aren't very good at listening, nor is it easy for them to translate words into specific actions. If they stand around too long they end up playing 'grab ass', or 'screwing around'. It's the nature of the beast, right? For the most part, our coaching staff gets this, but it seems that in critical situations they forget it.

Evidence #1: during a recent practice they were starting to put together their special teams. They had a group of kids on a kickoff return team and a kick off team. The kids that weren't playing on one of those (about 5 kids) were left to sit on the sidelines for about 45 minutes. There was no coach with them, and obviously they ended up messing around, then getting in trouble for messing around. Uh, what else are 7 & 8 year olds going to do?

Evidence #2: HB#2 has primarily played center in practice and games. Last week he was put in at Right Guard for a semi-scrimmage with a team from another age group (9 & 10 year olds.) He has never played this position before. He was told to "play over there". Really? Is anyone surprised that he was pulled after 2 plays? The defense got past him and right to the quarterback. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. Listen up coaches, when you move a kid to a new position you need to actually explain what they are supposed to do, and preferably walk them through a play or 2 so that they can do the job that they are asked to do. Older kids might be able to handle this kind of direction but not 7 & 8 year olds.

Related: Don't plan a practice solely around the offense or defense. That means that there will be approximately half of the team sitting for over half of the practice. It pisses parents off that have busy schedules and other children that need attention, too. Those parents would rather be at home checking homework of their other kids, getting them all showered and in bed to be ready for school. (Honestly, other parents said this to me. I was not at practice the night that this happened. HD came home mighty pissed off.)

Also related to all of this is: 1) We do not have a full schedule for the whole season yet, 2) They decided to change the location of practice one day a week, starting this week, and told us in an email. At least it was 5 days notice this time.

Their first game was this past Saturday. Unfortunately they lost 7-0, but it could have been way worse. We'll see how things go when we have to drive to an away game and the kids have to get up at 5am or so. That should be loads of fun. Considering over half of our team couldn't be bothered to show up on time things could get very interesting.

I'll be sure to keep you posted, but in the meantime? Just say "No" when asked to be the team mom. In honor of me, ok?

*The kids lost the scrimmage. HD said that the kids didn't show up. (Ya think? Who can concentrate when it's that hot?) Ironically, neither did the coaches. I guess there can be no blame on the kids then, right?