How did you get involved in soccer?

[laffysoccermom]

I started a thread that I never thought would become controversial so I thought I would start a different type but still hopefully generate positive activity on the board.

What is your role- coach, parent, ref, volunteer, or other? When did you get involved and how?

I got involved as a parent when my then 8 year old daughter who was given free tickets to a ULL soccer game announced that she wanted to play in college. I didn't know much but figured those girls started playing before college so she was playing rec in the spring.

She actually fell in love before she ever really touched a soccer ball. She has doubted but never lost that love. I am now a parent, a team volunteer, and a fan with admittedly very limited knowledge.

Your turn....

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[laffysoccermom]

Not where I wanted to go..... or what I said but anyway.

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[barnacle13]

I first became involved in soccer when my oldest daughter came home from kindergarten with a slip of paper on WBR Recreational league. All of her friends were playing, so of course she had to. She loved the social aspects of being on a team. Her path took her to more competitive soccer, but ended this year with no desire to play in college. I coached her briefly in 2nd grade.

With my son it's been a love affair with the game. He started out very average and was just playing to have fun. Now he eats, drinks, and sleeps soccer. Plays competitive (when he's not nursing a broken foot or ankle injury) and high school. I coached his middle school teams and some recreational teams he was on during those years. My knowledge and love of the game really grew during this time. I became a referee, so that I could learn the Laws of the Game and teach thm to my players. We went from a 0 win goaless year to a decent team that could compete despite playing 1 -2 years up. When he hit competitive I stuck to coaching only my youngest daughter's team.

She started just before her 3rd birthday and I've coached her all but that first season and her current season. She's grown a lot by watching her older siblings and by being the coach's kid and having to set the example at practices. I do miss coaching her team, but I knew I'd offered about all I could to her development and to that of her teammates. So, this year I hung up that hat and settled into a volunteer role at my son's high school team as well as on this board.

I also have grown to love the game, despite never playing myself. I grew up on baseball, and can honestly say soccer has replaced it as my number one sport. I haven't watched a pro baseball game (other than All-Star or World Series/Playoffs) in at least a couple years. I don't miss a USMNT match if I can help it, BPL is recorded and watched every weekend (at a minimum Chelsea and Everton get watched). I try to catch at least the MLS game of the week (Seattle Sounders are my favorite MLS squad). It's sometimes difficult to watch an MLS match after a morning of BPL, so I try to space them out a bit. ESPN FC is recorded daily and watched. Yep! I think I'm an adict.

Next....

[time2retire]

Referee since May 22,1996

[laffysoccermom]

How did you decide to become a ref?

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[time2retire]

Long story, condensed...

I didn't like the same guys I had over and over again and said I could do better.

There were a few times when I traveled playing and one referee in one particular game practically stopped the game, approached me with a smile, and said "why do you think that should be a foul"...or something along those lines. And that made me think about the things I could learn to be better than the guys I had growing up, back home. So I took the course and haven't looked back since.

That referee was Dave Busekist, and this one moment was probably the singular deciding point in me becoming a referee.

[laffysoccermom]

So you were a player first?

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[time2retire]

I played from about 6 or so up to 16 with club ball, and through my senior year in HS

[miraddydad]

My youngest started when she was 4. It wasn't the sport I wanted her to play. She was a heck of a little first baseman. But this was the only sport in which nobody told her to be still.

She started playing competitive as soon as she was eligible. After making an ass of myself a couple of times on the sidelines thinking I knew the rules, I decided to get my E license. Best money I ever spent. I helped coach a little after that.

My oldest started playing a little later, at 11. She'll likely be wrapping her soccer career up next year as a senior.

Because of all this, I ended up on the board of directors for our club, hoping to help grow not only our club, but soccer in NWLa.

[whssoccermom]

I became a soccer coach in the summer of 1999 when I received a phone call that went a little like, "you're the last person I have left to call and if we don't find someone to coach the team, it will be disbanded". It was the U6 commissioner for my daughter's soccer league. The rest is history. I had a less than one year old baby and I had just committed myself to coaching my daughter's soccer team! I knew very little about the game except for what I learned watching my daughters play for a couple of seasons. My husband had all the soccer experience, he played in high school and did his best explaining the game to me. He was already the assistant coach on my older daughters team. Let's just say that I kept what little I knew about the game to myself, taught the girls what skills they needed, and was on the sideline for a long time, standing confidently with my arms crossed, "looking" like I knew what I was doing! I have learned a lot since the fateful phone call. I have an E license and many years of soccer coaching under my belt! I don't have to pretend I know what I am doing anymore! That daughter I coached?  She now plays in college and her baby sister is a sophomore in high school. She also plays. She learned to walk kicking a soccer ball!