youth soccer and the roots of 206 polo

I am coaching emery's soccer team again. for those that may not know I coached emery's team in its first 5 seasons. watching not only emery but a few of his friends grow from kindergarten to their current age. WOW! this year the team was without a coach, so i stepped in. personally i am amazed by the kids that continue with something when the parents are not involved except to pick up and drop off. but hey thats just me.

So these kids are eleven and literally and figuratively it is now a different ball game and these kids, man the changes they're going through, holy shit 11! you know what i am learning 11 is? 11 is that age where the kids go from being cute to being obnoxious. it's the age that a kid is supposed to start to process puberty and unlearn all those things that their parents trained them to do, unlearn they are no longer the center of attention. learn that there is something more than them. when you think about it, you put the jigsaw pieces together, and you start to see the picture that is being created no wonder kids struggle and lash out at this time. it might as well be another terrible 2's. because really truly these kids dont know how to articulate whats going on. theyre emotional and act or react emotionally. in short these kids feel but things are changing and its now that for the first time they get to actually register the change.

When hard court bike polo started in seattle, and by started i mean it wasnt being played like this anywhere else in the world, around the winter of 2001 i was there. even though i was not apart of the forming group, i was in the community of people that started bike polo, so when i could i participated. those were simple times. we would find an empty parking lot typically on friday night in the warehouse area of south lake union, ali would bbq, there was always beer brought for everyone and we would just play for the sake of playing. at first the rules were still being sussed out, 6 mallets would be tossed into the middle, then divided, teams formed and it was 3 on 3 first to 3. when the mallets would stop being tossed into the middle the games would end and we would go home with no trace that we were ever there. The game grew and it evolved. eventually pdx got involved and completely changed the game forever with hardcore rules!! my theory is that at that time you could live in pdx and not work, so needing structure all those cats surfing a friends couch got involved and out of necessity of control of something in their lives started making all these rules. yuck! i mean some rules are good but man! pdx! those guys like rules! dont let their liberal wheatgrass leanings fool you.

so i digress a bit. with this soccer team we have 2 practices a week. the first on tuesday is about respecting the game. teaching them to practice the few moves they know and concepts to work from; because, if you dont take talent and nurture it with respect to the game of soccer(in this case) then the game will leave you behind. on thursday its about love of the game and this is where the origins of 206 polo come into play: we bbq, form a field, have a big bag to randomly select personal soccer balls, when we have a team of 3x3 we play, first to 3 or within 9 minutes. those that arent playing get to eat. eventually these kids are going to be playing with far more intense coaches than me on teams far more intense than this one, but this team. this group of kids will be able to play with any team by the time theyre done because they will have practiced their basic skills, but most importantly they will be the ones having the most fun on the field.

this is juliet and she is in 3rd grade. her brother arthur is on the team. she helps out by filling in and she is amazing. she doesnt even wear shin guards. she's our guest player in case we are ever short. if a coach from another team protests my response is going to be "are you afraid of your players being schooled by 3rd grade girl."