The Ladies are Making Me Buggy

Quick soccer update for our millions of fans around the world. We won our game last Saturday and my 1st grade girls now have a winning record for the first time ever. We are 4-3 with three games left in the season. Something has clicked for them this last game or so. They are finally passing the ball, spreading the field better, and getting after the girls on the other team. It's great to watch the girls out there. They are now going into games with the expectation that they are going to win which is a far cry from where they were at this point last season. That's the main thing that I wanted for these girls. Besides becoming good soccer players I wanted them to learn to compete, feel like winners, and have fun.

That being said I am bracing myself for the collapse or at least big stumble. I don't want it to happen, but I'm trying not to let my expectations get away from me. Practice yesterday was a good example of what I'm worried about. Some of them were distracted the whole time looking for lady bugs. Others were talking noise and then getting upset when things weren't going their way. All of them had a large degree of whineyness to them. They were all bitching at each other at different points yesterday and I was trying not to lose my cool. At the end of practice I pulled them together and gave them a talking to about team work and how we need to support each other. I told them that we are friends on the team and do not complain or place blame. Then I took all of their collected ladybugs crushed them under my foot and told them that if we lost on Saturday it would be because of they were jacking around at practice.