May 6th- The leader of the Pack

May 6, 2017 Year 6 Day 6

FREE PRETZEL #6

A dreary Saturday morning, the first Collingswood Farmers market of the season gave way to spotty instances of sunshine and a little warmer temps.  It stayed pretty breezy and cool for most of the day, but nothing could stop the U9 Collingswood Coyotes from their scheduled soccer practice!  Last fall Collingswood was able to start including boys in their travel soccer club after they struck a deal to use the Kroc Center in Camden for our games, which occur on Sundays.  A town ordinance prevents us from playing in Knight Park on Sundays.  

I decided to volunteer to coach and as luck would have it have found an instant friend in my coaching partner Dan Rudio.  Dan works as the Chief Accounting Officer at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc, in Malvern Pa.  It is a hike for him to try and get back for practice when we have them on week nights and just dealing with the Schuylkill every day might be a reason to get a FREE PRETZEL.  Dan lives right around the corner, has 4 kids, each with their own daily schedule of events and I know he doesn't have time to figure out who is doing what, let alone keeping our team straight.  He has help, in the form of his wife Jen.  Come to think of it, she may be in line for a FREE PRETZEL soon too.  She helps getting our schedule on Team Snap and making sure we have snacks for after each game.  But I think I'll save this for later. 

Dan went to Highland high school and we recently discovered that we were both our soccer teams penalty kickers, if and when we were called into duty during a game.

Dan enjoyed his FREE PRETZEL

Dan showing the kids a new drill

I think the two of us have been doing a pretty good job with our boys.  This spring we have not lost a game and only have one tie.  The boys, although still raw, have shown pretty awesome progress as a team and also by each player.  The boys are young and still learning and if they all stick with it it will be pretty cool to see how they grow throughout the years.  After working with 5th graders all day, it is a bit draining to then try and handle ten 8/9 year old boys, but working together I think we keep each other sane.  Dan obviously loves what he is doing with our team, because we are constantly texting, and talking to see how we can get better and compete.  He even wants to play in more tournaments! Ugh. I'm good with just the season.  All in all it's volunteer work and it keeps us connected with our kids and we definitely help each other in ways we may not have realized we needed it with strategy, teaching, coaching and planning.  I hope to continue it for a while and no he will do everything to keep me going.  Right Dan? Ha.

Until tomorrow...