My Favorite Sports Memory
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by G8rBryan
Reading my friend Kat's blog about her baseball memories with her dad caused me to reminisce on my favorite sport memories as a child and as an adult. I would have to say my favorite was as an adult and a father. I had 3 sons and 1 daughter.
My first 2 sons were 7 & 5 (David & Keith). David was wanting to play soccer with a friend that was going to sign up at the local park on a Saturday. I took him down to sign up and Keith tagged along. David was extremely excited and that's all he had talked about for the entire week; even though he had no clue as to how to play the game. We arrived at the park as soon as the doors opened and were the first ones there. I asked where was the soccer registration for the 5-7 years olds? I was informed the man who was to be the coach for their age group had changed his mind about coaching. She then told me there would not be a team for their age group because of this. David and Keith's faces turned from one of excitement to disappointment within a split second.
As a father, one of the things you hate most is to see your child/children disappointed. I explained to them again what the lady had said and shortly we were in our car going home. I looked in the rear-view mirror. Seeing your sons with tears welling up in their eyes can make a grown man crumble. I was no exception to the rule. Broke my heart to see them this way. I immediately turned the car around and headed back to the park. David asked where we were going. I said, "Back to the park to sign you boys up for soccer". "But dad, there is no coach, we can't play". "You got one now, me", I replied. My sons faces instantly lit up. "Realy, dad?", David asked. "Yes, really. Even though I don't know what the heck I am doing and we will probably finish dead last in the county, I'll do it."
After meeting with the recreation dept coordinator and told her my idea, she quickly had me sign some papers before I had a chance to change my mind. I had 10 kids sign up on the team. Most of the boys and girls were 5 and 6 year olds. Soon I thoroughly learned "patience is a virtue" and not just a cliche'.
I told the parents that I guaranteed 2 things to happen during the season. First, every child was going play as much as the next child; regardless of how good they were. Second, I will do my best to make sure everyone on the team scored one goal. I soon learned that the latter of the 2 would be more difficult then expected. Our team fared really well, which surprised me. We had only 2 loses going into our last game. There was only one problem. Keith, my 5 year old was the only one on the team without a goal for the year. Him and another boy named Paulie were more interested in playing with bugs on the field then running around, kicking a ball and then having to go chase it. Too much work for them.
With 4 minutes to play, I sent Keith back into the game. I told him to just go kick the ball into the goal and don't worry about playing in his usual defender position. "Just keep kicking and and chasing the ball". With about 1 minute to go, Keith was about 10 feet from the team's goal when he nailed the ball with all his might. I knew it would probably be his last chance for a goal. The ball flew off his foot, hitting the goalie in the knees. The next was similar to the ball in a pinball machine. The ball bounced off the goalie's knees, then ricocheted off Keith's legs and back into the goal for a score.
I think the mouth of every parent on our team dropped opened in disbelief, including my own. That moment made all the pratices, the sweat, the frustration of keeping every parent happy with their child's playtime, and the late nights worth it.
*Note - In the pic, Keith is in the back row next to me and David is the boy waving in the back row middle.
