AR - Co-coaches

That first practice was promising. You weren’t hoping for superstars, you were just praying not to have a total disaster.

You have the makings of a team, but you have a small, new problem. A handful of parents are at every practice, which is fun in its own way, but it’s a distraction for the players and for you and Adella.

For now, you just have to deal with that. You stay away from the parents, who spend the whole time gossiping. You don’t want to hear this gossip right now; much of it relates to Ellen and her ambitions, and you don’t want or need that pressure. Maybe Stef and Jessica talked you into this with politics, but that is not your problem.

You just need to coach a soccer team and make sure these girls have fun. But… one part of making sure that they have fun is making sure that they don’t get crushed when it’s time to play. So they’ll have to learn.

“Like this,” you say, showing them for the eleventy-thousandth time how to kick a ball. They know to use the side of their foot, so that’s good. But they keep chipping the ball and sending it flying instead of passing it in a way that someone can use.

That’s OK. Working on the basics is fine. At least you are qualified to coach that.

Meanwhile, Adella has a few players huddled around her, and you know what she’s doing: teaching psychology. Part of Adella’s success as a player is her aggression and her instinct for knowing where to point it. She identifies weak links and crashes into them. You aren’t sure how much the Cowgirls are going to take away from that lesson, but you also don’t care. You consider Adella the Head Coach. You’re just her assistant. You had enough responsibility as the Captain of Pink Team. You’re supposed to be on vacation.

Soon you push the parents onto the field as stand-in opponents so the girls can practice dribbling around them. You stand with Adella, watching. In your first practice, you identified four girls that will probably be your stars. Since, you’ve narrowed it down to two. You still have high hopes for Julika and Hanna, but it’s Valeria and Alice who will make or break this team.

“If we want to win, we will need more personal training,” Adella murmurs to you, and you’re thinking the same thing. To develop those good players, you need to spend more time on them and give them some individualized instruction during these practices.

You know what Adella is thinking. You should each take one of them under your wing.

The lanky brunette, Alice, is a hothead and protective of her teammates. She will be your goalkeeper. And the small and shy, but coordinated Valeria is your best chance at the Cowgirls scoring some goals.

Make Valeria your apprentice?

Or Alice?