Advantage Dirt Contractors practicing up!

This is Jon. Yesterday was the first practice of the Advantage Dirt Contractors U-6 coed soccer team. Three boys and three girls. Delaney is on the team as well as her Dad, which is something that I wanted to help out with, but wasn't sure I was up to expectation as head coach. I still am not sure of my coaching ability, but I'm hooked. It's awesome.

I'm clearly motivating the right way, here. Nathan and Matti are enthralled so much they're looking the other way. I'm in my comfort zone, though, since this is the same reaction to my management techniques at the office.

Coach: Alright! We're going to warm up with a lap around the field!

Matti, Mackenzie and Delaney: Nope, we're going in our clubhouse.

Coach: Silence as they do just that.

This is me and Nathan...and no one else in the general vicinity. They were all on the slide, which is just out of the range of this photo. The dude in the red is Brent Huppert, who is on the Ellensburg Rodeo Board, so obviously he's cool, but he's currently looking for his son, Jake, who has spent a majority of the time laying the grass both days of practice. I'm pretty sure his defense technique will be as effective and Matti's and Mackenzie's grass throwing technique.

Me and my team from left to right: Jake on the ground in the goal, Nathan, Mackenzie (who lives a block away from us and her dad is a coach for CWU football, so like Huppert, is cool), Delaney, Mattilyn and way over to the right is Owen (who happens to sit right next to D-Rae in kindergarten). Our first game is Saturday and it's a jamboree format, three 15-minute games. In my coaching meeting a couple of weeks ago the director specifically looked at me and the other U-6 coaches and said, with a smile, "no matter what, even if it's hell, even you can survive it for 15 minute spans," and that is why most of our games will be 15 minutes.

In all honesty, it's really fun. The kids have an attention span of about 30 seconds, so if I'm not switching it up often enough, they head right to the play area. Our first practice was more productive than the second practice since I had them do drills before scrimmaging. The second day? "Coach! Can we scribble?" (since they forgot the word scrimmage).