Flag Football

We only have one more flag football game. The season has gone so fast! Did I ever tell you much about that? At the beginning I was dreading the worst.

So I thought it would be a good experience for the Dog Walker to coach a team. This was partly selfish for me because I really didn't want to miss Sport's Saturday football games but I knew if we didn't volunteer a coach they would not allow Curly to play since he is only in kindergarten and the league is 1st - 2nd grade. I was worried about the Dog Walker, so I also volunteered Princess as his assistant coach.

A few days before the initial game day we still didn't have a team list or any kind of coach's meeting. The first day was a clinic, but Sport had pictures at another park so I sent the kids over assuming our county rec was planning to help them teach the kids what to do. Yeah, right...

The Dog Walker and Princess had an hour to prepare these kids for their first game and when I got over there halfway through their clinic they were still letting the kids play catch! It was a disaster! I had zero experience coaching flag football, but I knew that on Saturday we were going to be in huge trouble if the kids had no idea what they were doing. I quickly changed the nature of the practice, but we still had parents with questions and we had no answers.

One of our players even changed teams the following day. We were all devastated and feeling totally unprepared. I knew I would have to jump in and help or the entire season would be a bust. I spent a couple of hours watching coaching videos and just learning the game. I couldn't sleep the night before that first game. I was just so worried about how to help these kids feel successful when I felt so incredibly incompetent.

The day of the first game arrived. We put Princess in charge of subbing kids in and out and the Dog Walker and I took the field. We had one more dad offer to help us and we were grateful to have him. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. We didn't have set plays or intricate hand-off patterns, but the kids did a great job! We have actually won most of our games although technically we don't keep score.

Princess takes a paper and pencil with and makes sure each kid gets exactly the same number of plays. I'm in charge of making sure everyone gets a chance to play quarterback and center. Oh yeah, and to keep the Dog Walker from cussing out the kids when they mess up. He tends to get a little excited...

All in all it has turned out to be a good experience although I'm not sure I can get the Dog Walker to coach again anytime soon. 

Guess next time I will just put my own name on the paper. I end up on the field anyway, needed or not. I think I just like coaching, and now I can add flag football to my growing list of sports.