This season for Thomas was especially challenging in many ways. He lost one teammate that we relied on and gained 4 teammates from the other Lakeside team. To say it was a challenging transition was an understatement.
The first practice started badly. Kids mouthing off to each other, disorganization, rough housing and behavioral issues. Forget being able to "coach". Our coach was too busy running herd on the new kids that were goofing off and causing breakdown with the group. If that wasn't bad enough, finding a new mom standing over my son berating him nearly sent me in to a rage. I turned my head for one minute to help the coaches pick up cones and I see that she has my son cornered, standing over him. She apparently felt it her right to go after him for something that was said on the field, something that one of the coaches had heard and didn't think a thing about. When you're about to take a shot to the face as goalie, a little banter is allowed. She didn't get that memo, and when Thomas said something to the effect of "you're gonna miss" as he got prepared to drill it at Thomas, she took offense to this. She ended the little tirade with, "You know you're better than him, Tommy. You don't need to be snarky, too."
Say what? Really? In front of your son? And my son? You have the nerve to say this? No need to point out Thomas doesn't even know what "snarky" means, nor could he pull this off. It's not his character....yet. Now his mom? Quite possible he will inherit it down the line. He just hasn't figured it out yet.
He was in tears. In tears down to the house. In tears in the house, and when he woke up in the morning. I followed it up by several near-rant texts and emails with the coach. I pointed out in multiple ways how inappropriate this whole thing was, and how devastated Thomas was over it. He didn't even want to go to practice again. For his part, Coach sent out a detailed email, and made a big point that this was not going to happen again and that if anyone had anything to say about anything, it would go through him.
AND...I didn't talk or acknowledge this person again until forced to at the end of the season. Childish? Possibly. I don't care. Challenge me on it. See how I respond. You have my respect until you do something stupid. Then it is gone. You WILL NOT MESS WITH MY SON.
Oh, and did I mention one of the other new kids punched Thomas at the end of the spring season? Oh, yeah, that made first practice even better. Did it get dealt with? Not so much. The kid is a twin, and neither twin would fess up to it, or so the story goes. Did this child's mother care to bother with finding the child and parent and talking about it? Apologizing for her son's pathetic behavior? Nope. And so the story goes. You have my respect...until you do something stupid. This would be in the stupid category. No apology for pathetic behavior- no respect for you.
The true story of this season was continued training with Joel Grossman. Joel is our lifeline for Thomas continuing to improve his soccer game. Thomas LOVEs training with Joel, made even better that he can do it with his buddies, Yale, Connor, Isaac and Alex. It's not cheap, but it is working, and I am thankful that despite the troubles on his Lakeside team, Joel remains our reinforcement. What should have been incredibly frustrating and disappointing big losses for Thomas, he found happiness in his individual play. He had big saves as goalie and goals that kept him smiling. He showed moments where my heart couldn't swell bigger, and it made a hard season bearable.
I put pictures of Tommy's last soccer matches up here. To me, they show a little boy with a warrior's heart. In the pouring rain, swampy field and inches of standing water around him, Thomas played his heart out. Already wet, he dove for the ball, laying his body out to keep shots from scoring. He had to wring his goalie gloves out between plays. He had water dripping off him, down his legs and arms, muddy water filling his shoes. He played on. At the end of the game, he came off defense and came to me crying. The reason for the tears? The cold, the wind, the soaking clothes?
No. He wanted one more chance to go in. He wanted another goal. Winning was not enough. He NEEDED another goal.
"Coach, please can you put me in again? Please?" Still wiping tears away from his muddy face.
I couldn't have been prouder.
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