The End is Nigh ...

It seems like yesterday ... a cool spring breeze blowing small life-giving raindrops onto the ground below. Inside the quaint brick house there is an anxiousness, no scratch that, an eagerness for the soccer season to begin. A new season filled with hope, dreams, fun and new friends. That was the scene in my house 14 weeks ago.

Now it is August and that means tournament season and the picture is much different. The weather is most times hot or sticky or both. The kids are tired of the soccer grind and anxious for the tournaments. They are asking themselves: Did I get better? Is this the year that we win? Will we win again this year? Can I have a freezie?

This time of year is always bitter sweet for me because I love seeing kids play soccer and not just my kids, but all kids. And tournaments mean that it is all coming to an end for this year. This is the time of year where goalies cry after losing in a shoot-out. This is the time of year that coaches will often lose their cool at a bad call from a ref. This is the time of year that the underdog team wins it all. This is the time of year that a rag-tag bunch of kids come together and show everyone the impossibilities that teamwork can do.

I am happy to see the end of a busy season come to a close which hints at the call of some rest in my near future but I am left with a unknowing question that haunts at the edges. The question I am left asking myself is far more removed than all the questions coaches, players and parents are asking themselves.

Did the kids have enough fun through learning, playing and socializing to want to come back again next year?

And the answer is never known until next year when the rain is falling on the brown winter-damaged grass and the refreshing breeze is no longer blowing from the north.