After a change of focus, I decided the name of my blog was misleading. Soccer has taken a backseat in my life. It is just a sport. To some, it is more. But in reality, that's all it is. Don't get me wrong. I still play and I will still watch it, but I have realized that youth soccer is a different beast all together. Seriously, has anyone actually watched these parents on the sidelines at the parks that these soccer clubs Bogart as "theirs" every Spring and Fall Saturday? It's out of line. I decided to stand back this season and watch for once. For the first time in 12 years of coaching, I stepped back and just watched. I was mortified. Sickened, if you will. It is a culture with relaxed guidelines at best that benefits no one in the long run. Let me put it simply. Children trained like soldiers and disciplined the same. Parents relinquish the right to teach valuable life lessons to a coach. Coaches who are given licenses merely because they "served their time" in the trenches as a MLS or International player. They must be great coaches if they have played on a soccer team, right? Guess again. After experiencing soccer club culture first hand for over a decade as nothing more than a successful coach, I will NEVER enroll my children into nothing more than recreational soccer. It's complicated beyond words at this point for me. I will now take my experiences with the sport that saved me and consider myself & my children lucky. It's time to move on...
My oldest is now in flag football. That's a funny sport to me. Derek (Son of Cheese) and I once played this sport one fall. That was funny. First, a little background. I'm not a large man. Some might venture to call me "cute". This is one of the worst things for a man's ego to be called "cute". But, it tells you I am not "football" size. Neither is my son. But with this "cute" size, comes an amazing & elusive speed. Derek, if would have harnessed this speed and sent me runnin' instead of lining me up as a tight end (HA!), we might have won one or two games. My son has some kind of record for first downs this season just because of his speed. Well, that's something going for us genetically. Right?
The blog name change is simple but needed. I am still a horseman and I still talk to my horses. And they tell me things back. The type of things that inspire; that make you think; that open you up; and that can make you bite your lip & think. My horses are part of my family. I plan to share my family with you as I have done in the past.