[Pause while soccer managers recover from their fit of laughter..."over!?! Hahahaha"...OK...breathe, people,...breathe]

The team's first practice was tonight. Five girls showed up but one had to get to a soccer game so we went with four. For an hour, we worked on footwork and layups. The first time I tried to blow my brand-spankin' new whistle, however, I covered the hole and came out with a lame sounding "pffftt". Still, I felt fairly pleased that my internet research seemed to produce some good drills and there is hope that my one year of high-school coached hoops was enough to shepherd 4th grade girls through a season.

On the car ride home, my daughter critiqued both my coaching and my parenting skills. Coaching turned out to be OK. The mirror drill was fun. Left handed layups are awkward. We should do more sprinting thingys and why didn't we play 2-on-2 full court?

Parenting, on the other hand, received lower marks: "How come when someone else does something right or even just OK you say 'Great!' and 'Wonderful!' but when I do something really good you just say 'good job' to me..." [tears ensued].

Not sure if the four girls who came tonight learned much about footwork or mastered proper layup technique. But I learned a little bit more about being a coach...and a dad.

Looking forward to next week's lesson!