After a humbling job hunt, I have found work as a full-time coach teaching soccer. I taught my first class yesterday with Coach Roberto and Coach Avis.
We arrived at the German-American school at 1:45 to set up the field. The kids streamed out of their classrooms and started putting on their soccer equipment. This was a big deal, since several kids needed help tying their shoes. Then they all came over to the field and Coach Roberto gave some instructions. He was funny and kind. For roll call, he had the kids give the coaches high-fives. At first, I pretended that the kids were too strong and it hurt when they slapped my hand. Seeing this reaction, several of the boys started enthusiastically hitting my hand so hard that it really DID start to hurt, so I had to change my approach and say, “not too hard now…” instead.
The next game was “Chase the Coach.” Roberto asked the kids who the fastest coach was, and the conclusion was that Avis, the 18 year-old, was the fastest. So all the kids raced Avis to this flag, and that flag, and they cheated by starting way ahead, so they almost won. But Avis got to the flags first.
Then we played “Downtown Traffic” and everyone dribbled their soccer balls in a small space, trying not to hit each other. If the balls collided, the drivers had to go “get them fixed” by going to the line and tapping the balls five times.
The next game was called “Thanksgiving Turkey.” Roberto put colored flags in the back of his shorts, while all the kids chased him while dribbling their soccer balls and trying to pull the flags out of his pants. Next, it was Avis’s turn. Roberto advised him not to put the flags too far down inside his pants and to pull his pants up…
After the turkey game, we broke the kids up into four teams and had them play scrimmages. I was impressed at some of their skills. At Kidz Love Soccer, we try to emphasize S.E.L.F. (Sportsmanship, Effort, Learning, Fun.) Every time a kid scored, we reminded them that the score at KLS is always fun-to-fun.
If you are interested, here is the website: www.kidzlovesoccer.com